Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeCrush
Couldn't they do the current X1 with a 380hp 4 or even their 3 banger with like 350hp?
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They could definitely do that, but BMW does not appear to be in any hurry right now to develop small, high output engines. Nevermind 350hp for a moment - consider that they are one of the few major auto manufacturers that does not even have a 4 cylinder engine with more than
250hp yet. Now, such as engine will arrive with the afore mentioned X2 M Performance offering, but we don't even know when that will happen (an announcement sometime this year is a reasonable expectation, however).
Speculatively, one could guess that part of the delay in setting a path for the next generation of small high performance vehicles has been the uncertainty surrounding the 2 Series. Originally, the writing on the wall was clear - everything below the 3 would move to UKL. But lately that has been thrown into question. This has been due in part, we have been told, to the fact that M Division isn't keen on FWD vehicles, nor even - as they would more likely be - AWD vehicles with transverse engine layout. With such big unknowns around vehicle architecture, naturally the decision on engine configuration is left open as well. If some sub-3 products will sit on CLAR or some other new small RWD platform, then that puts the I6 back in play for those products and that means a > 300hp 4 cylinder is not absolutely necessary. This would not cover a proper F48-based X1/X2 M, obviously. But if they have calculated that such products are not necessary right now, they could craft plans to move the next generation X1/X2 to this same theoretical sub-3 platform to be used for the new 2 Series and use the same I6 engine as well.