BMW continued its long streak of new model introductions by unveiling the 2020 8 Series Gran Coupe. It’s a four-door sport sedan designed for buyers seeking the style, performance, and luxury of the two-door 8 Series introduced in 2018 without sacrificing space.
As its name implies, the 8 Series Gran Coupe picks up where the 6 Series Gran Coupe left off. It’s not just an 8 with a longer wheelbase, though. It’s 1.2 inches wider, 2.2 inches taller, and a full nine inches longer than its two-door counterpart. Adding sheet metal in every direction let designers carve out a more spacious cabin. It won’t rival a cavernous SUV like the Chevrolet Suburban, but it offers an ample amount of room for four passengers and a respectable 15.5 cubic feet for their gear.
High-resolution screens dominate the dashboard. The driver faces a configurable 12.3-inch unit that replaces the instrument cluster, while a separate, 10.2-inch screen lets the front passengers navigate the infotainment system via a tablet-like interface. State-of-the-art gesture control technology is available, too, and buyers can select an upgraded head-up display with better graphics, a larger display area, and more content at an extra cost.
The 8’s assertive design works well on a low-slung four-door like the Gran Coupe. The front end is dominated by kidney grilles whose dimensions are relatively restrained considering BMW’s recent designs, like the 7 Series, and by sharp headlights with LED inserts. It’s impossible to mistake the Gran Coupe for anything other than a BMW when you see it in your rear-view mirror.
The fastback-like roofline flows into a spoiler integrated into the trunk lid, while elongated L-shaped lights create a visual link between the two- and four-door variants of the 8. The Gran Coupe is a looker; more so than the 6 Series Gran Coupe was, if you ask us. We can’t say we’re surprised by it, though, because its design was previewed by the M8 Gran Coupe concept shown in 2018.
At launch, the lineup will include two models called 840i and M850i, respectively. Offered with rear- or all-wheel drive, the 840i comes with a 3.0-liter straight-six engine turbocharged to deliver 335 horsepower from 5,000 to 6,000 rpm and 368 pound-feet of torque between 1,600 and 4,500 rpm. Stepping up to the M850i — which is all-wheel drive-only — adds a turbocharged V8 with 523 hp and 553 lb-ft. of torque.
Both engines spin the four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. The M850i is the performance champ of the lineup with a zero-to-60-mph time of 3.7 seconds. It will lose this crown when the M8 Gran Coupe arrives later in 2019 packing up to 617 hp between its front fenders.
The 2020 BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe will begin arriving in showrooms in September 2019. Pricing starts at $84,900 for the 840i and $108,900 for the M850i before BMW adds a mandatory $995 destination charge. Those figures place the Gran Coupe in the same arena as fierce competitors like the Porsche Panamera and the Mercedes-AMG GT Four-Door.
