We hope all of you had a great holiday season, along with amazing New Years Eve festivities. 2018 has been an another amazing year for BMWBLOG with over 3,000 articles published, coverage from all major auto shows, special test drives, photoshoots while delivering news to tens of millions of readers.
It’s an understatement to say we wouldn’t be here today without you and your support, so we would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to do this amazing job while having fun. We are grateful to love a brand that brings so many passionate people together, from all corners of the world. We’ve made new friends, we’ve reinforced friendships and most importantly, we encouraged everyone to connect with each other, even when we disagreed on things.
In our 2019 preview, we want to take a look at the most important novelties, facelifts and changes in the BMW portfolio, because as in the past year, 2019 brings a lot of new models.
The focus is on the new BMW 3 Series G20, which celebrates its market launch in March. A few months later, the presentation of the new BMW G21 3 Series Touring G21 will follow. There will be no successor, however, for the BMW 3 Series GT, which will be replaced by the new 4 Series Gran Coupe.
The other major debut in 2019 is the introduction of the BMW 7 Series Facelift, one of the most important life cycle impulses in the history of the brand.
The BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe, which will be launched in the Fall, will play in a segment similar to the 7 Series sedan. Compared to the 7 Series, the four-door 8 Series is clearly sportier and targets those luxury-class customers who are looking for more driving thrills. This Spring, the 8 Series will be supplemented by the already introduced convertible.
The next important premiere is the BMW 1 Series F40 , which is expected to celebrate its market launch in Fall 2019. The third generation of the 1 Series will use – for the first time – the UKL architecture for vehicles with front-wheel drive and therefore represent a major change for the compact class from Munich.
The largest novelty of the year 2019 in terms of dimensions is the new edition of the BMW X6. The third generation of the large SUV coupe carries the internal name G06 and uses largely identical technology as the new X5 G05.
BMW’s X family will get a refresh fo its successful X1 SAV. The F48 LCI will be relatively discreet, but will bring enough changes to bring new customers to the brand.
In terms of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, 2019 will focus on the new MINI E. The electric variant of the British iconic car largely uses tried and tested i3 technology, and should bring new life into the electrification efforts at BMW Group. The 330e, X5 xDrive45e and 7 Series hybrid will also play an important role in the 2025 electro-mobility strategy at BMW.
There are also some changes in the M Performance Automobiles department. In addition to the M340i, an M340d could deliver some thrilling diesel performance in Europe. Both cars are likely to gain a Touring version as well.
An important role also plays the area-wide offer of the 530 hp V8 Biturbo, which recently debuted in the M850i. The new engine will also be featured in the M550i, X5 M50i, X7 M50i and X6 M50i in 2019. For the X6, there is also a 400 hp quad-turbo diesel in the M50d models.
Garching will also have some news for us. First, we’re getting the first BMW X3 M and X4 M, along with the Competition versions, then shortly after, the M8 and M8 Convertible with around 650 horsepower.
It’s not a secret anymore that the BMW 2 Series range will get even more complicated after this iteration runs its production span. Initially the folks in Munich wanted all future 2 Series cars to be front-wheel drive but the popularity of the Coupe and the M2 apparently made them change their mind and decided to offer a RWD Coupe for yet another production run and launch a FWD alternative as well.
The front-wheel drive model will be built atop the UKL platform and will be known as the F44 2 Series Gran Coupe.
It is fair to assume that BMW will have some surprises in store for us as well, from some one-off concepts to previews of future models. The year will be quite exciting for the entire BMW Group and we will be here to bring you all the updates.