BMW 1 Series goes front-drive

BMW will stick with the 1 Series name for its upcoming five-door hatch, even though it will be its first front-wheel drive car and uses a completely different layout to the existing 1 Series.

Despite the potential for confusion with parallel front- and rear-drive cars both carrying a 1 Series badge, BMW sources have admitted the production version of the car will not move to a word-based name.

It will make its debut at September’s Paris Motor Show wearing the Concept Activity Tourer badge, sources insist, but the name won’t survive the move from concept to 2013 production car.

It had also been long rumoured that BMW was planning to give the City badge to its new front-drive small car, but that has been kyboshed in favour of a badge that will follow along the lines of the 3 Series Touring, 5 Series GT or 6 Series GranCoupe.

“It is still volatile about exactly what it will be called, but it will be a combination of 1 Series tradition and something else word-based,” a source confessed. “We have moved to have a naming strategy that combines what everybody knows but still accommodates some of the more-niche models and helps to explain them, so you can expect that to continue.”

The insistence on a 1 Series nameplate also puts paid to long rumours of a BMW 2 Series or even a 0 Series, though it is expected to donate its underpinnings to an X2 SUV that will be less aggressive than the current X1.

Though BMW insists there is market demand for both a rear- and front-drive 1 Series models – and has even produced research that showed most 1 Series drivers won’t know the difference - business logic suggests that the future of a rear-drive compact BMW is in danger.

If the cheaper, front-drive 1 Series succeeds, it will put the extra cost and weight of the rear-drive version into stark focus, not to mention its compromised luggage space.

What you can also expect to continue is BMW’s performance dominance over its even-more-youth brand, MINI. Not only does the upcoming car, which will be on sale next year, use the BMW Group’s all-new front-drive architecture a full year before MINI gets it, but its engine range will be more powerful as well.

Developed under the UKL code (for Under Class, roughly translated), the new architecture is both lighter and slightly more spacious inside, with a focus on extra luggage capacity. Yet you won’t see a MINI with the same architecture until late next year and you won’t be able to buy one until the first quarter of 2014.

It is said to be a flexible architecture, providing BMW with the slightly elevated driving position it was seeking while still allowing MINI drivers to drop lower to feel more engaged in the handling package.

MINI and BMW will offer their front-drivers with three- and four-cylinder engines in both petrol and diesel forms, but the BMW versions will always retain a power advantage, sources admitted.

Even BMW’s lowliest 1.5-litre, three-cylinder turbo-diesel will boast more than 100 horsepower, according to sources.

“We have to fit the car with BMW’s traditions, so that means it will still be a fast car with good handling, so 100 horsepower is a bare minimum. The MINI versions will be less powerful than the BMW editions.”

The engines are all based around BMW’s modular system, which means the 1.5-litre petrol engines will share the same 500cc-per-cylinder format as the 3.0-litre in-line sixes.

There will be 1.5-litre three-cylinder and 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engines, which will retain strong family ties to their rear-drive siblings, plus a 1.5-litre three- and a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel.

Branding machinations inside the BMW Group have meant that the next-generation MINI range will be three-cylinder-only until the Cooper S level, with the next MINI One not even sporting a turbocharger.

Another way the two brands will be differentiated is that the front-drive 1 Series will deliver its power through either a six-speed manual gearbox and an eight-speeder is the only automatic option. MINI will use a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic gearbox, sourced from ZF.

While BMW is planning both hybrid and full electric versions of the front-drive 1 Series, neither will be available at the car’s launch.

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