New BMW veers radically from brand's U.S. image

BMW has a different face at home in Europe than it does abroad in the U.S.. Marquee models shown last week at the Paris Motor Show weren't the big, fast, expensive cruisers other small, fierce sportsters you'd expect from BMW in the U.S.

Instead, BMW spotlighted a small touring wagon with -- gasp! -- front-wheel drive, an electric scooter, and a Mini Paceman, which is a sport-utility coupe but referred to by its maker as a "sports activity coupe" to avoid an unfortunate acronym.

The Active Tourer is a plug-in hybrid that's visually a cross between a wagon and an SUV and -- in concept form -- has a three-cylinder gasoline engine that, combined with the electric motor, can put out a healthy 190 horsepower, BMW says.

The Tourer should go 20 miles or so on a charge, the company says, before requiring help from the gas engine. The gas engine drives the front wheels. The electric motor drives the rear wheels. But the Tourer concept is viewed as prelude to a line of small front-wheel-drive cars BMW is planning for next year and beyond, adapting the front-drive Mini platform. Mini is a BMW brand. The front-wheel-drive small BMWs will be sold in the U.S.

Two radical things going on there:

• BMW is moving its emphasis on electrified cars into ones that look like traditional BMWs, rather than space-age go-karts.
• Front-drive is a first for BMW.

Rear-drive or all-wheel drive layouts spread the car's weight move evenly and contribute to better handling. BMW ads a few years back made fun of automakers using front-drive.

When BMW bought the Mini brand, it was so that BMW could field small, fuel-efficient, front-drive cars without polluting the rear-drive BMW image.

BMW has run ads through the years ridiculing rivals who use front drive .Now, Mini and the FWD BMW will share some front-drive hardware.

The scooter, C evolution, is at home in Paris,where scooters are practical and common, unlike their status in the wide-open U.S. Converting more-polluting two-wheelers to electrics might do the most, fastest in the quest for cleaner air. And replacing some of the rackety scooters would quiet the cityscape. The scooter is said to have a range of 60 miles.

The Mini Paceman, intended for U.S. sale, is that brand's seventh model. It's only the second, though, after the Countryman, that offers all-wheel drive as an option.

It's a two-door (which is part of the definition of "coupe" though badly mauled by marketing types hyping the likes of a Saturn three-door coupe and any number of modern, slick-silhouette four-doors). And it has a very big tailgate, Mini says.

Styling is supposed to accent the idea it is small outside, roomy inside. The rising belt line and small widows evoke the Range Rover Evoque.

Roomy or not, the interior wisely limits seating to four, in a nod to good sense and reality. Trying to fit five into a Mini hasn't been fun.

If you're a Mini-spotter, you can tell the Paceman instantly from behind: First Mini to have horizontal taillights.