2009 BMW X6

2009 BMW X6

by Jim McCraw, NewCarTestDrive.com

BMW is introducing a new sports activity coupe here in the U.S. sometime early next year called the X6. The BMW X6 concept shown at this fall's Frankfurt Auto Show was a thinly veiled version of the real X6 we will see here next year.

The production BMW X6 will be manufactured at the company's SUV plant in South Carolina, and it will look almost exactly like this concept when it arrives in early 2008. Unlike the conventionally styled BMW X3 and X5, the company's five-door SUVs, the production X6 will have seats for only four occupants, with much less rear-seat headroom and a very small cargo compartment by comparison. That's part of the Sports Activity Vehicle concept, though we'll likely call it an SUV. Think of it as an SUV take on four-door coupes such as the Mazda RX-8 and Mercedes-Benz CLS.

BMW has shown two strikingly different concepts of the X6, a high-riding SUV that's a four-door coupe version of the 6 Series and a hybrid version of the same hatchback coupe that was claimed to get about 20 percent better fuel economy than the standard version, with a concomitant reduction in tailpipe emissions.

The production version of the X6 is expected to offer the 4.8-liter V8 and 5.0-liter V10 engines available in the BMW 6 Series and M6 coupes, and it may use the twin-turbocharged inline-6 from the 3 Series as a base engine. We don't know, they haven't officially said yet.