Sleeker & Sexier

WITH ALL THE CHARACTER OF THE LATEST X3

- Gary Witzenburg

When we asked project leader Joachim Dunkel about his team’s top objectives in engineering this all-new ’19 BMW X4, his first response was, “The exterior. To address the sportiness. To underscore more its coupe quality.” That is what customer research said was wanted in the next generation.

First, we had to understand what it had to look like,” Dunkel said. “Can we bring the height down, make the wheelbase longer, and the track wider? Also to increase functionality with more headroom and more space in back. These are questions we had to answer from the beginning.” Because with award-winning carryover engines and the same new chassis that’s under its taller, boxier X3 platform mate, this Gen II X4’s performance, efficiency, and dynamics were hardly in question.

For those not up to speed on BMW’s model designations, its odd-numbered Series (1, 3, 5, 7, X1, X3, X5) are sedans and crossovers, or “Sports Activity Vehicles.” Even-numbered models (2, 4, 6, X2, X4, X6) are “coupes” (coop-ayes in Eurospeak) and convertibles. But the X2, X4, and X6 are actually sleekroofed, five-door hatchbacks of the sort that European makers have recently taken to calling “coupes,” and BMW labels them “Sports Activity Coupes” or SACs.