One of the biggest benefits of a modern vehicle platform, especially one designed for electric vehicles, is that the modularity (and the typical EV skateboard setup) can make it a lot easier and cheaper to create different body styles and derivatives. You can look to basically all brands for evidence of this, but it’s most true for higher-end brands. I mean, look at how many different types of crossover the German brands sell, and do you really think Porsche could get away with selling the Taycan wagon in the U.S. if it wasn’t electric?
Some body styles and niches are more of a flash in the pan than others while others are lasting hits — I should know, I drive a first-generation Mercedes-Benz CLS — and automakers are always adjusting their lineups based on market demand, canceling some models and introducing different, new ones. BMW is no different; there have been reports over the last few years that BMW would be trimming some of its derivatives in the next few years, particularly some of its crossover coupes. But as BMW’s head of development and engineering Joachim Post said to Autocar, it’s easy and cheap for the Bavarian automaker make derivative models, pointing to the upcoming next-gen 4 Series EV based on the Neue Klasse platform that should debut next year.
Low effort, high synergy
Post says the 4 Series is an important car for the brand and that it will “play an important role for the future,” which is definitely true. The current i4 is an electric version of the four-door 4 Series Gran Coupe, but BMW has yet to sell a fully electric two-door vehicle — and there are barely any on sale from other automakers. The same goes for convertibles, and the next-gen 4 Series surely will continue to be available as a droptop. Whether the Gran Coupe body style will continue on remains to be seen, but in general the 4 Series has been a strong seller, especially as it has less competition than five or ten years ago.
Post told Autocar that it’s “relatively easy to sign off the business case” for a car like the 4 Series. “It’s not [as] expensive [as] making a completely new car and whenever we make a 3 Series or X3, we still think about the 4 Series or X4, to make it with synergies so that a derivative can be easily built out of the base,” said Post. We’ve already seen spy shots of the iX4, and Post noted there will be next-gen versions of the X2 and X6, as well. “They are cars which with low effort can be made, which are high synergy and which are an additional opportunity for customers who like the proportions of cars that are a little bit more sporty, more dynamic,” Post added.
There will be both electric and gas ones
Naturally the electric version of the 4 Series, which will keep the existing i4 name, will be twinned with the next-gen 3 Series EV, which will adopt the i3 name. While it seems like a sure bet that the 4 Series’ styling will adhere closely to the 3 Series (above), like the prior generations, I also wouldn’t be surprised if BMW changed things up a bit more in terms of the coupe’s shape. The upcoming iX4’s roofline is a lot more sharply raked than the current X4, and a couple years ago a very radical BMW coupe prototype was spied just once (pictured below), not to be seen again, with a design that could give us an idea of what the 4 Series might be like. Imagine a profile that rakish, but with the 4 Series’ more rear-wheel-drive proportions.
While the i4’s 800-volt architecture will offer rear- or dual-motor configurations, very fast charging and super long ranges, you’ll also be able to get the 4 Series with internal combustion engines. BMW will be coming out with an updated version of its existing CLAR platform that will be able to handle the more advanced technologies and infotainment system of the Neue Klasse cars, and with powertrains that should be more heavily hybridized than the current ones. Other than a slightly taller hood, a few more intakes up front and the presence of exhaust tips, the two different models should look basically identical despite their different platforms.
Oh yeah, and there will definitely be a next-gen M4, both with an internal combustion inline-6 engine and with a quad-motor EV setup. Post said BMW is at a “bigger advantage in comparison to a few others” because it’s already been engineering its new gas engines to be compliant with the upcoming Euro 7 regulations. (He said even Rolls-Royce’s V12 will be sticking around.)
