BMW to manufacture cars with a rear engine???

[Land_Shark]

There is a rumor circulating in China, that BMW is to start making the 125 hatchback (5 doors) in China with the engine mounted in the rear... Starting 2011 (June)
Have you heard anything on a rear engine BMW??

[rori zahr]

not a hiss but I wonder what the benefit could be!

[Land_Shark]

I am trying to digg more on this, at least tryIng to find an article where they tackled this.mfound some short articles on a Front Wheel BMW to be sold in China... Interesting...

[zEdP]

Originally Posted by Land_Shark

There is a rumor circulating in China, that BMW is to start making the 125 hatchback (5 doors) in China with the engine mounted in the rear... Starting 2011 (June)
Have you heard anything on a rear engine BMW??

Let's reverse it, you mean a front wheel driven one series.

EdP

[Land_Shark]

Originally Posted by zEdP

Let's reverse it, you mean a front wheel driven one series.

EdP

No, these are 2 different cars. The front wheel will be based on the Mini Cooper, don't have yet which series. And will be only made for the Chinese market (don't ask me why)
The rear Engine is the 125 hatchback that will be made in China starting next June(2011)...

[teagueAMX]

Think how big the emerging Chinese market will be for them, plus huge land and human resources for manufacturing. They could quite easily produce a few tailor made vehicles, or even an entire new series for the Chinese market.

Their population is 4.288 times ther size of the US, yet their GDP is a little over half the US. The key is their economic growth rate is a positive 9.1% compared to the USA that has a negative rate of -2.6. If you look through the CIAs data you'll also see the Chinese birth rate is higher than the US and the death rate is lower.

CIA World Fact Book

CHINA

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$8.818 trillion (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3 $8.083 trillion (2008 est.)
$7.415 trillion (2007 est.)
note: data are in 2009 US dollars

GDP - real growth rate:
9.1% (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 4 9% (2008 est.)
13% (2007 est.)

Population:
1,330,141,295 (July 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1

USA

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$14.12 trillion (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 2 $14.5 trillion (2008 est.)
$14.5 trillion (2007 est.)
note: data are in 2009 US dollars

GDP - real growth rate:
-2.6% (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 160 0% (2008 est.)
1.9% (2007 est.)

Population:
310,232,863 (July 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3

[Land_Shark]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

Think how big the emerging Chinese market will be for them, plus huge land and human resources for manufacturing. They could quite easily produce a few tailor made vehicles, or even an entire new series for the Chinese market.

CIA World Fact Book

Population:
1,330,141,295 (July 2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1

Age structure:
0-14 years: 19.8% (male 140,877,745/female 124,290,090)
15-64 years: 72.1% (male 495,724,889/female 469,182,087)
65 years and over: 8.1% (male 51,774,115/female 56,764,042) (2010 est.)

Median age:
total: 35.2 years
male: 34.5 years
female: 35.8 years (2010 est.)

I know..lol.. I live there...
But I am again interested to see
1. If true a rear engine is on its way to BMW and why??
2. Why a front wheel traction, is it that consumers are making decisions based on FW versus RW??

I understand the FW/RW versus the 4WD...

[Memphis1]

Probably the i8 or even an isetta, and somehow thru hear say, they've twisted the story and say a 1 series with a rear engine.

[Land_Shark]

Originally Posted by Memphis1

Probably the i8 or even an isetta, and somehow thru hear say, they've twisted the story and say a 1 series with a rear engine.

I won't be surprised if this story is twisted...

[Otago]

for china market only.

[Land_Shark]

Originally Posted by Otago

for china market only.

...did you hear anything on that? Or have any additional info on that to share.

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by Land_Shark

There is a rumor circulating in China, that BMW is to start making the 125 hatchback (5 doors) in China with the engine mounted in the rear... Starting 2011 (June)
Have you heard anything on a rear engine BMW??

I read somewhere that BMW will open a plant in China perhaps the marketing team at BMW are planning to reduce the bicycle use in China and bring back something similar to the 1950s Isetta it certainly would make sense from a population point of view in that part of the world

UPDATE, BMW actually started construction of a second plant in China

As outlined here in this LINK

[Land_Shark]

BMW has already a plant in China producing the 3 series (except 335i)
China is BMW 2nd largest market topping the US and UK. (3 & 5 series). The 7th series biggest market is China...
I can understand they are trying to reach to the middle class to low income car wannabe...

Link: http://www.bmwcoop.com/2010/08/08/ch...opping-the-us/

[ChuckB]

Not buying this rumor, that would totally screw up the weight distribution, and unless BMW does a flat 4 or 6 you would give up all the advantages of the current BMW 1 series Sport wagon. Front wheel drive also doesn't make any sense, why would BMW market a front wheel drive car when they already decided not the bring the 1 series wagon to the States so as not to pull market from the Mini. Surely BMW has an excellent lineup to offer the world, I don't see them messing with what works, which is front engine, rear wheel drive.

[cdeslandes]

I seriously doubt that story. Why would BMW bother doing that?

Although there's already a German rear-engine car on the market:

[teagueAMX]

Not saying the rumor is true or false - seems the info tends to favor BMWs traditional platform - front engine/rear drive - but whatever.

That market is/will be so massive one has to consider cars that may never see any other country except China. The other thing is why do they have to be cars with a performance bent? That formula that's worked for them primarily in Europe, the US and other countries until now. But China's economic growth over the next 10 to 20 years could sustain a completely different business plan. They could have the traditional platform plus other models tailored to meet their specific market needs with much more conservative performance dynamics.

[Land_Shark]

Well VW manufactured back in the 90s a VW called Santana. In year 2000, they called Santana 2000 (very creative). 60% of the cars in china in that time were Santana. I bet none of you heard of this car before... A year 2003 car still with manual windows, no power steering (hydraulic) or even central lock...
BMW will need to compete with the Japanese cars and the Chinese brand cars... I am not sure where is this leading, but what I am trying to say is BMW is trying to come up with a car that compete with these in a super fast growing market... Not that I am saying the rumors are true or make any sense... Just laying a debate here...

[KrisNL]

New i8 (2013) will be rear engined.... (check info on that one)

[ChuckB]

Well my face is a bit red, seems BMW has built a rear engined car , currently titled the i8 in concept format, but to be badged as the i100 when it gets released in 2013. Not sure if this car with 3 motors can actually be called a "rear engined" car, we may need some new acronyms/titles for this new stuff

Found a few details, and posted them here
http://e89.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=470917

[teagueAMX]

Wikipedia is your friend my friend.

They did a few rear engined cars, and one was particularly notable - the 700 - that saved BMW from bankruptcy.

BMW 700

[ChuckB]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

Wikipedia is your friend my friend.

They did a few rear engined cars, and one was particularly notable - the 700 - that saved BMW from bankruptcy.

BMW 700

I don't count anything without a set of Kidneys as a "real" BMW. But learned something today, thanks...

[cdeslandes]

Originally Posted by KrisNL

New i8 (2013) will be rear engined.... (check info on that one)

The whole concept or rear, mid or front-engined cars is becoming obsolete with the new crop of hybrids. By locating pieces of the powertrain in different locations the engineers have whole new ways of distributing weight.