Pictures of the new BMW concept car for the 2012 Paris Motor Show were starting to leak out. But BMW reacted quickly and released official details and images of it. Meet the Concept Active Tourer, a car in the same sort of size as Mercedes B-Class, a car that will be produced in near future as BMW 1 Series GT.
This Active Tourer has the same weirdness in its design as the new 1-Series, but on the whole it looks quite good. It is well-proportioned and has nice details. The interior too looks like a lot of fun. It is not typical BMW at all. But perhaps the most important fact about the Active Tourer is that it’s a plug-in hybrid car.
This concept car has BMW eDrive system, the same used in the i8 supercar, with a TwinPower Turbo 3-cylinder 1.5-litre petrol engine that drives the front wheels. On the rear axle you find the electric motors, but they don’t power the wheels all the time, only when necessary. With a total output of 140 kW/190 bhp, BMW reckons the Tourer accelerates in less than eight seconds from standing to 100 km/h.
The top speed is 200 km/h, which is poor, but then BMW says this powertrain manages to average 2.5 liter/100 km, with a CO2 emissions level of less than 60 g/km.
The car’s lithium-ion battery can be charged at any 220-volt outlet, and once full they provide a range of 30 km emission-free driving. As part of the EfficientDynamics system on this car, it features an intelligent energy management system.
The system draws on data provided by the navigation system, calculating in advance the most suitable sections of the route and driving situations in which to apply electric drive or charge the battery. An ECO PRO mode is also included with unique abilities like putting the engine in a coasting mode when you lift your foot off the accelerator to save fuel.
The Active Tourer might be a small car (a length of 4,350 millimetres, a width of 1,834 millimetres and a total height of 1,560 millimetres) but it is fully packed with advanced features such as Heads Up Display, 8-inch display, a couple of bespoke apps, and a panoramic roof.
The car is also very practical. The luggage compartment is highly versatile due to the variable rear backrests, which can be split 40 : 20 : 40. A flat load floor can be created by folding down all three backrest sections.
How many of these awesome features will make into the final production version? That remains to be seen. But this concept shows that small cars of future will have all the stuff you find today in big, expensive luxury cars. So imagine what would the luxury cars of future be like.
