Tentatively dubbed the 0-Series at this stage, BMW Chairman, Norbert Reithofe, has confirmed this week that a rival to the Audi A1 is in the works.
Speaking with British magazine Autocar, Mr Reithofe said that the German carmaker is planning to grow the small car offerings of both BMW and MINI, with front-wheel-drive being the likely layout. “We will be extending the BMW and Mini brands into the small car segment with new models and variants,” Reithofer told Autocar. “For these new vehicles, we are developing a common architecture for both front and four-wheel drive.”
With an all-new MINI Cooper expected to arrive in 2014, the new models would likely utilise the same front-wheel-drive layout. Mr Reithofer said that the new models will be entirely separate from BMW’s upcoming Mega City electric vehicles, with internal studies at BMW showing growing demand for ‘premium vehicles’ (such as the Audi A1) in the small car market.
The Chairman added that while the next-generation 1 Series is not guaranteed to be rear-wheel-drive, the new platform being engineered to accommodate a four-wheel-drive layout means that BMW’s traditional rear-driven recipe may live on in the new 1 Series.
