The BMW 2-Series Gran Coupe is the brand’s most affordable car in North America, and a useful stepping stone towards 3-Series ownership in Europe. The current GC has been around since 2019 and it looks like it’s been popular enough to warrant a second series.
Our spy photographers captured the next-generation 2-Series Gran Coupe testing for the first time, but certainly not the last. The little four-door coupe is wearing plenty of disguise because it’s still more than a year away from launch. We’re expecting the GC to go into production late in 2024 as a 2025 model year car.
That disguise might obscure the finer details of the design but we can see enough to confirm intel that new car won’t be all-new, but an evolution of the current car, which shares its platform with the 1-Series hatch, X1 SUV and Mini Clubman – but not the RWD, two-door, 2-Series Coupe. Believed to go by the codename F74 (the current car is F44), the next Gran Coupe will again feature transverse engines driving the front wheels by default, with xDrive all-wheel drive offered as an option.
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Unlike the latest X1, the new 5-Series and the 7-Series unveiled last year, which all feature flush door handles for smooth flanks, the 2-Series appears to be sticking with the old fashioned pull variety. The front and rear taillights are new, however, and the trunk lid is very different, and should make the new Two instantly recognizable from the old one when seen from the rear.
The current rear end design has the license plate mounted very low, almost mimicking the look of the X4 and X6 SUVs, and making the Gran Coupe look awkwardly upright. But the cutout for the license plate is much taller on the replacement car, which should give it a lower and wider, if less distinctive look. The 2025 car should also adopt the new style of BMW interior characterized by a single pane of glass covering the digital gauge cluster and infotainment screen, something missing from the current 2-Series Gran Coupe.
Changes are likely to be more modest under the hood, where will probably offer a familiar mix of three and four-cylinder mild-hybrid engines, potentially topping out in M235i guise with the same 312 hp (316 PS) 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine found in the new X1 M35i. Prices won’t rise much, so should start at just under $40,000.
