Back in April, BMWBLOG sat down with M CEO, Dr. Friedrich Nitschke, and Brian Watts, Head of M Global Sales and Marketing, to learn more about the new M Performance Automobiles family. An interesting tidbit that came out of the the chat was that the sporty division of BMW will launch an M Performance model aimed at U.S. consumers.
The model would be a 1 Series Coupe, but tuned by the M Division. Now we also learned in the past that the new 1 Series Coupe and Convertibles will be sold under the 2 Series badge, which brings us to the conclusion: M235i would be the model sold on this side of the pond.
To somewhat validate our assumptions, Greg Kable, a well connected journalist, says in article today that the M235i Coupe will arrive in 2014. He goes as far as saying that the M235i Coupe will replace the 1M which was sold to 740 U.S. customers. We believe that BMW will continue to capitalize on the success of the 1M and bring an M2 version sometimes in 2015.
The M235i coupe, not yet confirmed officially, is set for a debut at the 2014 Detroit auto show. The M235i coupe will use the same 316-hp version of the N55 turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine. According to Kable, A BMW M division source told Autoweek that this engine has been certified for U.S. sales.
To cater to its enthusiasts, BMW will offer the M Performance coupe with a manual transmission, as well as with an option 7-speed DCT. The car maintains BMW’s rear-wheel drive architecture, with an xDrive version possibly offered as well.
The M235i Coupe will be joined by a similar offering but in a cabriolet variant.
[Source: Autoweek]
