Many die-hard BMW enthusiasts—fans of rear-wheel-drive, high performance premium coupes, sedans, and convertibles—have expressed dismay that BMW is now building the 2 Series Active Tourer, essentially a front-wheel-drive, premium entry level minivan. Even without seeing or driving one. This is reminiscent of the reaction to BMW’s decision to enter the sport utility—or activity—market fifteen years ago.
Remember the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing that happened when BMW announced the first X5? Today most enthusiasts accept—some grudgingly—that the X family of vehicles has maintained the BMW quality and feel and surprisingly in many cases, the performance expected of a BMW. The company now relies on the hundreds of thousands of X vehicles coming out of Spartanburg each year to feed the group’s bottom line and give it the financial freedom to pursue new markets while still building performance cars for the purists and satisfying the shareholders.
Well, it’s happening again. BMW has just officially launched the 2 Series Active Tourer and many old-school BMW nuts are asking why.
BMW has already provided part of the answer. At the press launch for the 2 Series Active Tourer, Frank Niederlaender, head of product management for BMW’s lower model range, told Automotive News Europe that BMW expects 75 percent of buyers of the 2 Series Active Tourer will be first-time BMW buyers, and that once customers get a taste for the brand, many will keep buying it.
BMW is offering the vehicle line in an attempt to garner customers who would otherwise go for vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz B Class or Volkswagen Touran. There are a growing number of younger families that can afford an entry-level premium car but need the people-moving capacity of a minivan. BMW estimates that the demand for luxury cars like the Active Tourer will grow faster than for the overall premium market.
In a year in which the BMW Group is expected to sell more than 2,000,000 vehicles for the first time in its history, it’s hard to imagine they need to sell many more each year to stay solvent, but solvency is not the company’s goal. The goal is survival. Some industry analysts believe that in years to come, small companies will be swallowed up by the largest car corporations—companies that sell more than 5,000,000 vehicles per year. In the great scheme of things, BMW is a small company that definitely does not want to be acquired so it has to sell more cars. BMW CEO Dr. Norbert Reithofer earlier this year stated that BMW’s goal for 2016 was to sell 2,500,000 vehicles—a huge increase over this year’s probable record sales, and only two years down the road.
That’s why the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer. It will fill a growing market segment and let BMW keep doing what it does well.
For those consumers that want such a vehicle, it’s likely the Active Tourer will be a good one. It will probably feel and drive like a BMW even though it has front-wheel drive. BMW’s engineers seem to have that down. They claim that during lane-change tests, the vehicle demonstrated lateral acceleration results on par with rear-wheel-drive cars. The top-of-the-line 225i is reported to have lapped the Nürburgring Nordschleife in under nine minutes.
Europe will get to choose from three gasoline and three diesel versions when the 2 Series Active Tourer goes on sale there in September. China gets it in January 2015 and the United States will see it in showrooms some months later, although engine choices are unknown at this time.
BMW is planning a three-row, seven-seat edition that will probably appeal to U.S. buyers. A plug-in hybrid model will also be forthcoming but then, we will probably see plug-in hybrid versions of most BMW model lines in the future.
Old school BMW purists will most likely bemoan the proliferation of models and the dilution of the brand, but if the 2 Series Active Tourer and models like it allow BMW to keep building the premium high-performance vehicles that made them famous, wouldn’t it be worth it?—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
