The successor to the BMW E30, a 1 Series saloon

BMW is reportedly working on a saloon based on the smallest car in the German family, the 1 Series. To the current 1 Series range, made up of the five-door hatchback, the coupé and the convertible, a four-door 1 Series would be added, becoming a sort of successor to the E30 of yesteryear.

This new 1 Series would sit as the entry-level model in the range in terms of price, and would be available from 2015, the year in which the brand would begin an offensive to sell 2 million vehicles by 2020. As seems evident, this small saloon would be one of the workhorses for achieving this target set by the company from the house of the kidneys.

According to the German manufacturer, this saloon will be no small matter, since it will share certain mechanical elements with the 3 Series and will be rear-wheel drive. It would also be manufactured in China and Brazil, in addition to Germany, so this would be a truly global model.

Let us recall that the E30s (the last BMW with separate front headlights) were restrained in size and engine options during their early years. Today, the successors to the E30 have moved up to a higher segment, with ever more equipment, ever more expensive and larger than the originals, which is why the brand looks favourably on a saloon in the style of those days of the 1970s and 1980s.

Update to the current 1 Series on the way

BMW has also announced that the current generation of the 1 Series will receive one more update before giving way to the saloon: a new convertible and a new coupé, to be designated F22 and F23 respectively. These updates would arrive by 2014, one year before the “spiritual successor” to those wonderful E30s sees the light of day.