This weekend, BMW unveiled a China-only model that has been rumored to come out for quite some time – the BMW 1 Series Sedan. When it was unveiled in concept form, the new compact sedan was received with mixed reactions, however, recently, a lot of people have started falling in love with it for some reason. Even we wondered whether it should come to the US or maybe Europe for that matter, and stop being a Chinese-only affair. Even though it’s a front-wheel drive car that goes against everything we hold dear about the BMW badge, the 1 Series Sedan stands out with its beautiful design and proportions, and it may just be the competitor BMW needs for similar offerings from Audi and Mercedes-Benz.
At the moment, the 1 Series Sedan is available only in front-wheel drive guise (xDrive is not yet on the table) and only with 3- or 4-cylinder engines. Being built atop the UKL platform, chances are that’s how things will remain for the rest of its production run. However, rumors about a possible Motorsport Division developed 2-liter 4-cylinder engine made some people wonder whether an M version of the car could should up in the future. X-Tomi Design definitely took this to heart and came up with the rendering shown here.
Thanks to massive wheel arches, incredibly aggressive front fascia and dynamic sides, the 1M Sedan could be one of the hottest cars on the block. Chip in a 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine – good for some 350 HP – and this powerful M car could easily take on the CLA45 AMG. Of course, it would also need all-wheel drive but that won’t be a problem with the front-wheel drive platform.
What may be a problem though, is finding a fitting name. Using the M1 nameplate would be considered a sacrilege therefore making the 1M Sedan name feel a bit more appropriate, thus our winning choice, if we had to choose.
And if you’re thinking of abandoning all hope of such a car making it into production, you need to think again. Our sources just confirmed that a 2 Series Gran Coupe is in the works, a compact sedan version of the popular Coupe we have today. It will be close in design to the 1 Series Sedan the Chinese are getting today but it will be a rear-wheel drive affair which will make things even more interesting. Hopefully, there will be an M version with a 2-liter engine that would take the fight to the CLA45 AMG.
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