BMW X2 Is New—and We Get Two

• BMW has two new X2s, both sharing the same 2.0-liter turbo four. The xDrive 28i makes 241 hp and the M35i xDrive 312. Both have all-wheel drive.

• The car rides on BMW’s FAAR platform, made to accommodate all powertrains.

• Europe and China get an electric version, but we do not. Nor do we get the diesel.

Driving BMW’s new X2 M35i xDrive, swabbed in a green so bright it looks like an alien space craft just landed in sunny Portugal, it occurs that things are changing in this world. BMW sales are up, all around the globe.

“We grew 6.3% last year,” said Jochen Galler, member of the board for sales. “BMW grew in all regions: Europe, North America, China. We grew with all technologies and powertrains. It is an all-time high in EVs.”

It is the Chinese appetite for EVs that may be driving everything. While EV sales in the US have slowed somewhat, electric vehicle sales in China—where you don’t have a choice in these things—are growing. And China’s market is huge.

Hence, there is an electric version of the new BMW X2, because China (and Europe) want EVs. But here in the US, where we are slower to embrace the zero-tailpipe lifestyle, we will get zero electric X2s. (“You’ll get nothing and like it!”)

We will get instead two versions of the same 2.0-liter turbo, and it will drive all four wheels. (The rest of the world also gets a diesel, but we hardly ever get the diesels these days.)

They’re not bad 2.0-liter fours. The base engine is an “extensively revised” turbo in the base-model X2 xDrive28i. It gets a new dual-port injection system, meaning fuel is spritzed into the engine at both the intake port and right in the combustion chamber, the latter which has new geometry.

The result is 241 hp from 4500 to 6500 rpm and 295 lb-ft of torque from 1500 to 4000 rpm. With a dual-clutch Steptronic seven-speed, that’ll get the base model to 60 mph in a near-leisurely 6.2 seconds.

The M version of the X2, the M35i xDrive, is slightly quicker: Its 0-60 mph time is 5.2 seconds. This is thanks to VANOS variable cam timing and VALVETRONIC variable valve timing.

This engine makes 312 hp from 5750 to 6500 rpm and the same 295 lb-ft of torque as the base engine. The M engine is beefed up to handle that extra output with a stronger crank, better oil cooling for the pistons, and main bearing shells and caps from the six-cylinder BMW engines.

To make sure you appreciate all that power and torque, BMW pipes in artificial engine sounds to the cabin. Fake engine sounds are here to stay. Vroom, vroom!

Of the two we get, I only got to drive the M35i xDrive, and if you can only have one that might be the one to pick. While some whined that it wasn’t as great as they’d hoped, I felt the rig was taut and the driving feel reactive to my inputs.

Both models ride on BMW’s fairly new—2018—FAAR platform, which is the direct result of BMW’s uncertainty about exactly how many buyers would be going for this electric car thing. They didn’t know if by now the figure would be 40% EV sales or 10%.