In case you didn't know this already, BMW is banking on FWD to maintain its sales lead over Audi and Mercedes. Over the next few years, they plan to introduce no less than 12 cars on the UKL1 platform that will first be seen underpinning the new MINI Cooper.
Last year, MINI sold no less than 301,526 cars across the world, most of them being FWD, but still marketed as being sporty, posh and elegant. Now BMW themselves want a part of that action and are planning to launch a their own sportscar with FWD, as reports indicated a model called the Z2 should be ready by 2016.
The idea is to make something that's smaller and cheaper than the Z4 while still being reasonably fast. The big Z is a sportscar with character, but it's also quite expensive. The cheapest model you can get in Germany is the Z4 sDrive18i with a 2-liter 156 HP engine, which costs just under €34,000. Meanwhile, a MINI Cooper S Coupe starts at €25,300 in Germany, offering more power torque and performance.
The BMW Z2 could be a very real proposition for those who want this sort of car but can't put up with the strangeness of MINI design.
Once it enters production, the Z2 could benefit from the same new 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo engines as 1-Series GT. The UKL1 platform can also be configured to take an xDrive system, which could prove popular.
The idea is to make something that's smaller and cheaper than the Z4 while still being reasonably fast. The big Z is a sportscar with character, but it's also quite expensive. The cheapest model you can get in Germany is the Z4 sDrive18i with a 2-liter 156 HP engine, which costs just under €34,000. Meanwhile, a MINI Cooper S Coupe starts at €25,300 in Germany, offering more power torque and performance.
The BMW Z2 could be a very real proposition for those who want this sort of car but can't put up with the strangeness of MINI design.
Once it enters production, the Z2 could benefit from the same new 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbo engines as 1-Series GT. The UKL1 platform can also be configured to take an xDrive system, which could prove popular.