BMW, a brand that owes its modern success to sports sedans, is now selling more crossovers (SAVs) than it's traditional bread-and-butter sedans.
With some 60% of sales now made up of SAVs, the average BMW on the road has grown in both height and ground clearance in recent years. Even so, we don't expect a funeral for the BMW sedan because unlike Ford, BMW is not ditching sedans anytime soon.
According to an interview by
Autoblog, which recently spoke to BMW head of design, Domagoj Dukec, the sedan will remain relevant in BMW's portfolio.
But fans of BMW sedans should expect some changes in design, changes that may challenge the definition of a traditional three-box sedan.
"The 40-60 or 50-50 [sedan-SUV] split will remain, so yes, sedans will stay relevant," Dukec affirms.
"There also has to be a certain modernization, or evolution, of the body style. It can't just be the classic three-box [silhouette]."
.jpg)
Dukec explains that through market research, BMW have identified two primary design trends or characteristics: "casual" and "elegant" where parallels can be drawn to interior design.
"Casual", can be likened to a modern open living space, where the kitchen, living room, and dining areas sort of blend together into one open space.
"Elegant" design is on the other end of the spectrum, where there is clear distinction and separation of the kitchen, living room, and [formal] dining room.
Dukec says that those who prefer the former (i.e., "casual" aesthetics) are more inclined to be SAV buyers while those who prefer the latter (i.e., "elegant" aesthetics) would be more inclined to pick a sedan.
Incidentally, the preferences differ depending on the target audience.
While Dukec doesn't cite hard numbers, opting for the more abstract and philosophical thought experiment instead, he implies that sedans may be more popular in other markets outside of the US.
"We see that, in China, they're asking for more elegance, maybe something like a two-and-a-half-box. This is something we are looking at."
Challenging the classic three-box architecture with a two-and-a-half-box sounds a lot like the approach taken by some of the Gran Coupés.
One way to interpret this is that BMW will seek creative approaches to take desirable elements of crossover design and infuse them into future sedans.
We take it to mean that we should expect silhouettes such as the
F44 2 Series Gran Coupe to be a reference point for future BMW sedans in terms of design and aesthetic form.
