Production of BMW Z4 Coupe concept ruled out

The BMW Concept Touring Coupe – a two-door hard-top Z4 'shooting brake' concept car – will not go into production, according to enthusiast website BMWBlog.

BMW wowed attendees at the 2023 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy with the three-door show car based on the BMW Z4 roadster, which is currently only offered as a soft-top convertible.

Key to the concept car was its unusual ‘bread van’ proportions which blend the Z4 roadster’s front end with a hatchback-like rear.

The design pays homage to the shape of the 1998-2002 BMW Z3 Coupe, the look affectionately dubbed ‘clown shoe’.

At the June 2023 unveiling, BMW head of design Adrian van Hooydonk suggested a small production run of the Concept Touring Coupe was unlikely, but still possible.

“We made the agreement before we set sail for Lake Como [where the concept was revealed] that, if there's enough interest, we will take a look at it. That could be a very low-volume version, like 50 cars or so.”

BMWBlog now says the Concept Touring Coupe – a passion project of the BMW Munich design team – has been ruled out for production after an unsuccessful business case was put forward.

Enthusiasts hoped the concept would follow the BMW Hommage 3.0 CSL Concept – paying tribute to the 1973 ‘Batmobile’ E9 3.0 CSL coupe – into showrooms.

After being shown at the 2015 Lake Como event, a hand-built batch of 50 CSLs were made by the car maker – priced at around €750,000 ($AU1.25 million) – as part of the performance-focussed BMW M Division’s 50th anniversary in 2022.

One of the 50 cars has since been sold at RM Sotheby’s auction house for €1.02 million ($AU1.7 million).

The Z4 Coupe proposal was, says BMWBlog, based on introducing the same limited run of 50 coupes equipped with the same engine and features as the flagship Z4 M40i roadster currently in showrooms.

This would include the more powerful 285kW/500Nm ‘B58’ 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engine, with entry-level Z4 roadsters fitted with a smaller 2.0-litre four-cylinder.

Also, a factor in choosing the M40i roadster specification for the proposed coupe was the recent introduction of a six-speed manual gearbox – not offered in Australia – following the driving enthusiast spirit of the original Z3 Coupe.

A blowout in cost, however, would see each of the 50 coupes priced at around $US250,000 ($AU383,500) – significantly more than the roughly $US71,500 price (yet to be confirmed) for the new six-speed Z4 M40i roadster in US showrooms.

The automatic-only Z4 M40i roadster is listed at $AU139,800 before on-road costs in Australia.

The Z4 was first offered as a coupe in 2006, three years after the original model was introduced as a soft-top convertible only.

The second generation arrived in 2009 with a hard-top convertible Z4 as its only body style.

The current Z4 roadster – introduced in 2018 – was co-developed with the Toyota Supra, with BMW offering only the convertible body and Toyota the coupe.