Today BMW presented it ‘s annual account press conference where BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer re-confirmed that BMW will build a front wheel drive car below the 1 Series. Let ‘s go straight to the money quote of the article:
>“There will be front-wheel-drive BMWs in the smaller vehicle classes in the future,” BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said at the company ‘s annual financial results press conference here today.
BMW expects the new architecture to debut in 2014 (a year later than anticipated) with the debut of the third generation MINI hatch. The new archicture will allow BMW to produce many products around the size of the current MINI and MINI Clubman and smaller. Basically everything from minicars to compacts. All told Automotive News expects the architecture to underpin up to 20 different MINI and BMW models.