BMW’s small sports coupe returns still rear-wheel drive in 220i and M240i guises, no hybrid/electric model, coming to Singapore in late 2021/early 2022

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Munich, Germany – Just when we all thought that electric sports cars are going to be the way forwards from here, BMW is showing us that there’s life in the good old internal combustion engine yet, with the announcement of its all-new, second-generation 2 Series coupe.

The brand has announced that there will be two variants, the M240i xDrive and 220i available at launch. They will eventually be joined by the new 230i at a later date. There’s no official estimate on the launch date for Singapore, but we wouldn’t be surprised by a late 2021/early 2022 debut for the car.

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There’s also a turbodiesel-engined 220d, and interestingly, that’s the only version that has a 48-volt mild hybrid drive system.

As it was with the first-gen 2 Series coupe that was launched back in 2014 – we tested it in cabrio form- , these are not large cars and the new design measures only 4,537mm in length. It is, however, 10cm longer than the old model. They’re strict four-seaters, with a modest boot space of 390 litres. BMW has stated that the new 2 Series takes plenty of chassis engineering cues from its larger sibling, the 4 Series coupe. 

The quickest version, the M240i xDrive, has a turbocharged, 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine putting out 374 horsepower. Drive is sent to all four wheels, as denoted by the ‘xDrive’ in the model name, via an eight-speed sport automatic transmission. Fuel economy is rated at 8.8L/100km and the 0 to 100km/h sprint is dashed off in just 4.3 seconds.

The 220i is no slouch, with 184 horsepower coming from a 2.0-litre, four cylinder turbo engine. It’s rear-wheel drive, with a standard eight-speed automatic transmission and accelerates to 100km/h in 7.5 seconds. Fuel economy is rated at 6.8l/100km.

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The 230i will arrive in late 2022, featuring the same 2.0-litre turbo engine found in the 220i but boosted to deliver 245 horsepower. Other technical details have not yet been confirmed for this variant. 

Set to be built at the BMW Group’s San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico, the 2 Series coupe is getting its official launch at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England on 8th July 2021. 

BMW claims that the “fresh, youthful and extrovert aura of the new vehicle concept is geared squarely to offering agile and precisely controllable handling in highly dynamic situations.”

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The chassis’ torsional rigidity has been increased by up to 12 percent over the previous-gen car, and the design retains BMW’s legendary 50:50 front-to-rear weight balance for optimal dynamics. BMW states that the 2 Series coupe does actually share some chassis components with the larger 4 Series coupe. 

The range will be fitted with BMW’s Operating System 7, which will include BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant, BMW Digital Key, ConnectedMusic and Remote Software Upgrades. The dashboard will sport an 8.8-inch control display and a 5.1-inch colour display in the instrument cluster.

The higher specification BMW Live Cockpit Professional, which includes a high-resolution instrument cluster behind the steering wheel with a screen diagonal of 12.3inches and a 10.25-inch control display, is available as an option, but going from the standards of BMWs already sold in here this might be standard fitment in Singapore.

As is the case with BMWs in recent years, the cars will be highly customisable to suit individual tastes and budgets. For example the eight-speed automatic gearbox of the 220i can be exchanged with a quicker shifting sport transmission at extra cost, and the standard LED headlights can be upgraded to adaptive LED units as well. 

A complete M Performance parts catalog, including larger wheels, sports suspensions and bigger brakes will be available for the 2 Series coupe, and going from experience some of these parts may come as standard fit on cars on sale in Singapore.

The big question is, will there be a top-spec, high performance M2 in some form? The M2 Competition is one of the best full M cars for Singapore, as we found out on the road, and not as bonkers fast as the new BMW M3 or M4.

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Watch this Singaporean BMW enthusiast explain why the M2 CS is a unique car like no other

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BMW is quiet on it for now, but we’re not counting that out yet, perhaps even one in petrol-electric hybrid guise. There’s also no word on whether there will be a drop-top variant, which the first-gen series had.

As it stands, the range has just been announced so local availability and pricing is still some time away. Based on current COE prices though, we expect the 220i to sit somewhere in the S$190,000 with COE range. 

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