First sight: BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe gets a makeover

The BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe is now in its second generation and has been designed very much with simplicity in mind. The original premiered late in 2019 showcasing a fairly aggressive look and busy interior; the new generation has dialled things back slightly with a more approachable face and a cleaner, calmer cockpit.

Long-time BMW designer and exterior team leader Jose Casas says that the project began with the objective of making a big jump from the prior model – its own design and not to be confused with a facelift.

“You can see we’ve done that from the front quite clearly, as well as at the rear and on the interior. It’s a big, big change,” Casas tells Car Design News. “The main goal was to modernise and to simplify it with a much cleaner and iconic design – something that starts to live by itself and is not similar to the other model.”

Part of that came down to a different approach to the front and rear. The original was more aggressive up front and softer at the back; whereas this new model is a little sleeker – friendly even – from front on. There is a touch of Kia Ceed to the head lamps, at least on first glance, but we’re sure this perception is subject to change when viewed in the metal. At the rear, the tail lamps seem to frown, if not glare, and are supported by beefed up rear arches and quad tailpipes.

“We flipped the approach a bit,” agrees Casas. “The front is also now much more stretched back to make the front overhang shorter. We don’t want to lose that BMW-ness of having short overhangs.”

It does have more of the intangible BMW-of-old feel about it, and while it was not an explicit influence here, Casas does flag the E60 5 Series (and M5) as a particular favourite of his. Squint and there are shades of that from the rear, to this writer’s eyes at least, and at 4546mm long, 1800mm wide and 1445 tall it carries a similar build to another icon, the E46 M3. CDN detects an E92-esque look to the side profile. It’s funny what a set of exhaust pipes can do to the nostalgia centre of the brain.

But less about the past, what does the new 2 Series Gran coupe say about the future of BMW design? We are not yet seeing the Neue Klasse themes pull through – and perhaps may not exactly, given the recent leadership shake-up – but it is clear that BMW is moving towards more of a simplified design language.

“Our philosophy now is to do more with less, to create much more emotional products but using more sophisticated elements to reduce lines and rely more on volumes,” Casas explains. “Personally, I feel the previous generation (of the 2 Series Gran Coupe) was too complicated – and everybody’s doing complicated design these days, anyway.”

A focal point of BMW design is often the kidney grille on the upper mask, which in recent years has ruffled many a feather of the BMW enthusiast. As part of this new approach, the kidney grilles have been “cleaned up” and supported by bumpers that “rely more on volumes, not lines.”

“It’s very difficult to predict what people will like,” Casas continues. “As designers we know what’s aesthetically and proportionally correct. But design is always little bit of a bet. This is much more of a bold design in comparison to the predecessor; this new car offers enough as it is before we start adding things.”

This new design strategy did not come out of the blue, stemming partly from customer feedback about first generation Gran Coupe. “That’s very important for us. At the end of the day, we have to please our customers and over the last few years some people have been saying that the car looks too complex or has too many lines, for example. We take all this kind of feedback into consideration within design.”

Inside, there is a similar approach – removing visual clutter and opting for cleaner surfaces with fewer visible controls. Even the upright gear selector has been replaced by a flat selector. Yes, the screen is a little bigger than before, but there is a good balance between “button overload” and “full Model 3”. Perhaps one change that will go under the radar is the treatment of the air vents, which are integrated more seamlessly within the IP. The difference can be seen with the new (in grey with red seats) and old (second picture) below.

“Like the exterior, we wanted to reduce the amount of elements to create more of an iconic design. The dashboard has a much stronger concept of monolithic design, more so than probably any other part of the car in fact,” concludes Casas. “Everything is pointing toward the driver, so it’s a quite driver oriented cockpit, which is very BMW.”