BMW Shapes Its Future in Shanghai

With a svelte, stretched profile and jaunty front-end styling, BMW's new Concept CS debuts at the Shanghai Auto Show with at least two significant implications: It previews the styling of BMW vehicles to come and highlights the company's efforts to heighten its stature in one of the world's fastest-growing automotive markets. BMW says sales have swelled by 750 percent in China over the last five years. The company hopes to increase sales in Asia to 150,000 units by 2008.

The Concept CS' flowing lines are “the next step of the evolutionary development of our design language,” BMW says. Categorized as a four-door, four-seat sport coupe, a production version of the Concept CS, if one ever gets made, could be BMW’s answer to the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class. The nascent vehicle niche of so-called "four-door coupes" — the name of which is an oxymoron, considering that coupes traditionally have two doors — represent carmakers' efforts to bring sleeker, flashier styling to sedans.

On the Concept CS, an outstretched hood that meets a low, sweeping roofline creates visual punch. Large wheel arches frame oversize 21-inch wheels and underscore a trend toward continually larger wheels. The front end, while retaining the automaker’s trademark split grille, looks much more aggressive than that of any model in the current range, with large air scoops and narrow LED reverse-projection headlamps that purport to light the road without blinding oncoming motorists. An abruptly shortened rear end is capped with a functional spoiler. At 200.8 inches in length, the Concept CS is just a bit longer than a standard 7 Series, BMW's largest sedan, but is slightly shorter than the long-wheelbase version in that line.

The roomy interior is as aggressively cast as the exterior, with an instrument panel and controls canted toward the driver. High-tech ceramic materials are used for instruments and switchgear — including the iDrive interface controller. Sport seats coddle front and rear passengers, and a center console sweeps rearward between the backseats for use as an armrest and additional storage space.

BMW hasn’t yet released information regarding the car’s powertrain or other operating systems, and it's unclear whether the CS Concept implies a new model in BMW's lineup or simply hints at what the 7 Series will look like in the near future. Stay tuned for more details.