When BMW announced the revival of the 8 Series nameplate most BMW fans who caught the original back in the 1990s were excited upon hearing the prospect of seeing it make a return. However, the news was bittersweet since we then learned that the arrival of the 8er will also mean the departure of the 6 Series. While most of us expected the 8 Series to be the biggest Coupe BMW made and the 6 Series to become a smaller, lighter, possible Porsche challenger, the Germans had different plans.
As it turned out, the 8 Series will be replacing the 6 Series altogether, and that’s apparently a decision dictated by the customers as well as future plans. As Carscoops reports, the BMW head of Product and Brand Communications Eckhard Wannieck told them on the sidelines of the Geneva Motor Show that this was a decision influenced by a number of factors: “[The decision] was mainly driven by customer demand and it is part of our luxury offensive. It was a strategic decision made by Harald Krüger to increase our footprint in the luxury segment. The key milestone of this strategic initiative is the positioning of the 8-Series as a true luxury car and to enter the luxury segment too with the [8-Series] coupe.”
That’s exactly what BMW is doing right now, as the 8 Series will be part of an exclusive niche within BMW, under a new logo and tagline: Bayerische Motoren Werke. The new move aims at gaining BMW a larger piece of the luxury pie, as the cars part of this niche – from the 7 Series, to the 8 Series, i8 and X7 – will be more expensive but also feature exclusive features compared to the rest of the range.
Since the 8 Series will arrive this year along with its M variants, the customers will once again get to say whether the move makes sense or not. In the meantime, the concept for the M8 Gran Coupe seems to have everyone agree the production model will be a winner.
