BMW expects 75% of its 2 Series Active Tourer buyers to be new to the brand

In the last few years, BMW has definitively proven that it wasn’t a slave to its legacy. In the United States, the 3 Series was generally associated with smooth, flat-six engines, but the Bavarian brand dropped a four-cylinder turbo into it. The company was also known for its sports sedans, and it went green with the i3 and i8. Now, rear-wheel drive is off the table as defining its vehicles, as well.

With the imminent launch of the 2 Series Active Tourer, the Bavarian’s models are going front drive and opening up themselves to a whole new group of customers, so the thinking goes. BMW expects that three out of every four buyers of its 2-series Active Tourer minivan will be new to the brand.

“We are expecting the Active Tourer will have a conquest rate of around 75 percent,” said Frank Niederlaender, a BMW product manager, to Automotive News Europe. If you’re not hip to the lingo, that means three quarters of the hatchback’s buyers would come from other brands, an impressive figure, if accurate.

BMW expects the minivan to win customers who would otherwise buy vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz B class or Volkswagen Touran. Launching a minivan will help lure to the marque younger families, who often stay customers of the brand as they get older. BMW also forecasts demand for luxury compact cars like the Active Tourer will grow faster over the next 10 years than for the overall premium market.

When it hits the road, the 2 Series Active Tourer will be the first BMW-branded vehicle to use the company’s UKL front-wheel drive platform, already on the current Mini Cooper. The roomy hatchback is aimed at young families looking for a car that is luxurious but can still tote around the tots. It launches in Europe in September to compete against similar models like the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, but the Bimmer isn’t crossing the Atlantic to the US until early 2015.

Of course, the 2 Series Active Tourer is just step one of BMW’s front-wheel drive future. A plug-in hybrid version is already testing, and the next X1 moves to the same platform, too. According to ANE, a three-row Active Tourer is also in the works, which is possibly related to the recently spied new CUV. Read more about the story here.