BMW Concept Gran Coupé concept (2010) first news

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

23 April 2010 15:04

BMW today showed off the Concept Gran Coupé show car at the 2010 Beijing auto show. It's a near-production version of 2007's Concept CS show car and a good nudge at a new type of BMW due in the next couple of years. Yes, a four-door 6-series is coming.

Hmm. Looks like a Mercedes CLS by BMW!

Exactly. The 2010 Concept Gran Coupé previews the four-door BMW 6-series coming in 2012. BMW plans to launch a rival to the successful Merc CLS and the forthcoming Audi A7 – in a bid to swell 6-series sales from their current total of 38,000 in coupé and convertible guise.

The Gran Coupé is being shown in Beijing alongside a production long-wheelbase 5-series for the stretchalot Chinese market. But don't assume that's the bread and butter car and the concept all pie-in-the-sky dreaming. The blurb from Munich even admits 'the aspiration of the BMW brand to build four-door high-performance coupés with the sportiest proportions and the most elegant design.'

Yes, the four-door 6-series will look almost exactly like the Gran Coupé show car.

It does look very production realistic...

Indeed it does. Stretching to nearly 5m long, the Gran Coupé is a low-slung 1400mm tall and, like the CS show car, mixes coupé swoops with saloon volumes. For reference, that's 10cm lower than a 5- or 7-series sedan.

Of special note is the new front end, with the latest iteration of the BMW kidney grille in shark nose format. Those four doors are frameless too.

BMW 6-series saloon: the tech story

Instead of a top-end aluminium-skinned sports saloon, the CS concept has transformed into a conventional steel bodied 6-series family member. That means resolutely conventional powertrains, with a mix of petrol and diesel engines from the 5/6/7-series clan, eight-speed transmissions and – potentially – hybrid versions.

The 6-series saloon will stretch from a 625i (2.0-litre twin-turbo four) all the way up to a scorching M6 (575bhp twin-turbo V8). It's all change in Munich's product plan.

By Tim Pollard