BMW is one step away from ending its MPVs, the 2 Series Active Tourer and Gran Tourer

When BMW launched the market BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, the purists of the brand threw their hands to their heads. Not only had they created a front-wheel drive car, but they had also put on sale a minivan. Yes, something shocking in a brand that has accustomed us to high sportiness with rear-wheel drive vehicles. However, they reached an audience that they could not access before.

The fact is that, with the increasingly intense demand for SUV-type vehicles by families, the minivan segment has plummeted. The BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and its seven-seater sibling the BMW 2 Series Gran Tourer arrived at a time when SUVs were already beginning to emerge, but they didn't have the current bulk. Now it seems that the Bavarian brand does not see profitable a new generation of these models, so for the time being they will not take over.

This is what our colleagues at Coach. The British media states that the Vice President of Product Management at BMW, Peter Henrich, has stated that these two MPV models (as the car firm calls them) “they have done an excellent job of attracting customers to the brand”, adding that “they are not at the core of what our brand stands for now".

Coming these statements from a senior BMW official, it seems that Henrich makes it clear that both models will pass to a better life without a generational change, which is also not surprising because their sales are falling noticeably cycle after cycle. It is therefore only logical that the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and Gran Tourer disappear from the map when the time is right.

In any case, in the Bavarian firm they should not worry too much. The customers who were previously regular minivans are going directly to SUVs, where BMW has a good product offering with the X1, X2 and X3, which are compact and mid-size. “We will see how we can transfer Gran Tourer customers to our SUVs”, added Peter Henrich, since the three SUV models mentioned above do not offer a 7-seater cabin.

Source - Coach