Likely called 2 Series Gran Coupe, BMW’s upcoming sedan will essentially be billed as a more spacious version of the 2 Series coupe (pictured) fitted with four doors. It is expected to stretch markedly longer than its two-door sibling in order to offer a more spacious interior with an acceptable amount of head room for the passengers in the back. The Gran Coupe moniker suggests it will boast a sleek, coupe-like roof line instead of a more traditional three-box design like BMW’s bread-and-butter 3 Series sedan, and German magazine Auto Bild believes it will receive a practical hatchback like the Gran Coupe-badged variant of the bigger 4 Series.
The 2 Series Gran Coupe will ride on the same modular front-wheel drive platform as the new X1 and the MINI Hardtop, among others, and it will be exclusively offered with four-cylinder engines. Buyers in Europe will have access to at least one diesel-burning mill, but it doesn’t sound like a six-cylinder engine will be available. Most models will ship with all-wheel drive, a strategy that BMW’s U.S. arm has already adopted with the X1 in order to avoid diluting its image by selling a car that’s front-wheel drive only.
The 2 Series Gran Coupe will be introduced at a major auto show in either 2018 or 2019, and it will go on sale in Europe and in the United States shortly after. It will be positioned a notch below the 3 Series as an entry-level model, meaning it might be the only member of the BMW lineup priced under $30,000.
Updated 03-30-2016 by Ronan Glon: Added new technical details.
