Described by BMW as the world’s first premium compact model to offer up to seven seats, the 2-Series Gran Tourer is the most unlikely model we’ve ever seen coming from Munich.

Besides offering seven seats, it is front-wheel drive and it is only offered with 3- and 4-cylinder engines. But the main thing about the 2-Series Active Tourer’s bigger brother is practicality. With all five seats in place (the additional two are optional), it has a boot volume of 654 liters (805 liters if filled to the ceiling). With the rear-seat backrests folded down, load space rises to 1,905 liters.

Modularity is also an important thing for MPV buyers, which is why the Gran Tourer features a standard fore-aft sliding rear seat bench, with a 40:20:40-split backrest that folds down at the press of a button. The optional third row of seats can be completely lowered into the loading floor and a range of storage options for all three rows of seats is offered.

At launch, the BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer will be offered with five turbocharged petrol and diesel engines with outputs ranging from 116PS to 192PS. There will also be an all-wheel drive model, the BMW 220d xDrive Gran Tourer.

Being an MPV, the BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer must satisfy kids as well, which is why the automaker is offering a new “myKIDIO” app, which provides appropriate content for children and families (such as feature films, series, audio books and audio plays) on tablets such as the Apple iPad.

In addition to the standard version, the 2-Series Gran Tourer will offer a further four model variants: Advantage, Sport Line, Luxury Line and M Sport.

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