BMW M235i xDrive Coupe announced, ruled out for Australia

The new BMW M235i xDrive retains the same 3.0-litre twin-scroll turbo engine producing 240kW of power and 450Nm of torque, with the all-wheel-drive model equipped with an eight-speed sport automatic transmission as standard, which sees it offer improved acceleration performance over the rear-drive model sold here.

The M235i xDrive's 0-100km/h sprint time slips from an already impressive claim of 4.8 seconds for the eight-speed automatic to just 4.6sec for the all-paw version. Its top speed is limited at 250km/h.

However, BMW Australia product communications manager Scott Croaker told CarAdvice that while the all-wheel-drive 2 Series is offered in right-hand-drive, the model isn't expected to be sold here.

"It is a global model and will be built for global markets. There's a business case for it, and we certainly look at all the opportunities that are presented to us.

"But at this stage we're not considering any xDrive versions of the 2 Series," Croaker said.

Some of the reasoning behind not offering the M235i xDrive may be due to the chance that BMW needs to leave some room above the current M235i (priced from $79,900) for the potential new range-topping M2 Coupe that was spied by CarAdvice's snappers recently.