BMW X2 prototypes ready to hit the road – report

According to Autocar, engineers at BMW’s prototype workshop have revealed test versions of the sporty X1-based compact SUV are just days away from hitting the road.

“We’re finalising the first prototypes now,” Autocar’s source claims. “They should be in action by the end of the month.”

Allegedly confirmed for production more than a year ago, the BMW X2 is set to follow a familiar format within the brand’s SUV line-up, built in the mould of the mid-sized X4 (pictured) and large X6, which inject coupe-inspired lines to the conventional X3 and X5 SUVs on which their based.

With what is said to be a two-and-a-half-year development program already underway at the brand’s research and development centre in Munich, the BMW X2 is set to be unveiled and go on sale during 2017.

Like the forthcoming second-generation X1 that’s set to launch in the coming months, the X2 will be based on BMW Group’s UKL platform, which currently underpins the Mini Cooper and the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer.

The X2 will be available with the choice of three- and four-cylinder turbocharged petrol and diesel engines, and will be offered with the choice of front- and four-wheel-drive layouts – moving away from its current rear-/all-wheel-drive underpinnings.

The X2 will become the seventh SUV in BMW’s line-up, joining the models listed above and the all-new X7, which will sit above the X5 as the brand’s biggest-ever SUV to rival the likes of the Mercedes-Benz GL (soon to be GLS) and the Range Rover.