Leaked Patent Images Reveal BMW 8 Series Convertible And Gran Coupe

BMW has confirmed the 8 Series Convertible and Gran Coupe will go on sale next year.

One of our most eagerly anticipated new models of the year was the reborn BMW 8 Series, and it didn’t disappoint. BMW’s new grand tourer looks gorgeous from every angle. So far, only the Coupe variant has broken cover, but we know the BMW 8 Series will eventually be sold in several different body styles including a Convertible and Gran Coupe.

BMW hasn’t officially revealed them yet but leaked patent images of both body styles have leaked online via Dutch site Auto Visie. A few patent images of both models emerged a few months ago, but these new images are much better quality and show the designs from every angle.

Unsurprisingly, the 8 Series looks stunning as a convertible, retaining the Coupe’s athletic shape. As we saw in recent spy photos, the 8 Series Convertible will have a soft top instead of a folding hard top. Not only does this make the car more luxurious, it also saves weight. Being a convertible, it will still be heavier than its coupe counterpart and is expected to weigh in at least 4,400 lbs.

As for the four-door Gran Coupe, the patent images give us a clearer look at the design than previous spy shots, as we can now see the car’s side air vents and rear ducktail spoiler. The 8 Series Gran Coupe was previewed earlier this year with the M8 Gran Coupe concept and it looks like the production model’s design will be faithful to the concept, though the front and rear bumpers look less aggressive.

With room for four, the luxurious 8 Series Gran Coupe should be a formidable rival to the Porsche Panamera. Under the hood, expect both cars to use the same twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 as the Coupe, which produces 523 hp. BMW has confirmed the 8 Series Convertible and Gran Coupe will go on sale next year. More potent M8 versions are also coming, which could borrow the new M5’s 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 producing over 600 hp.

BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe Patent Images Have Found Their Way Online

It was only a matter of time.

Introducing the internet, the purveyor of nearly anything that can be sold. Sometimes the internet, or rather an internet user, manages to get a hold of material a company doesn’t want released to the public just yet, and proceeds to post it online for the world to see. Such is the case of a Bimmerpost forum member who has uploaded a patent image of the upcoming BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe, although it is a bit grainy. Fortunately, the reveal late last week of the new 8 Series Coupe makes it easy to imagine what the four-door coupe variant will look like.

We were also given a glimpse of it in concept form last March at Geneva with the reveal of the Mack Daddy of them all, the M8 Gran Coupe. We don’t expect the production version to arrive until sometime late next year, but our spy photographers are likely to find test mules out and about any time now. Also included in this leak is a patent image of the also upcoming 8 Series convertible. When the 8 Series Gran Coupe does debut, presumably as a 2020 model, it’ll likely be initially offered in two trims only, the M850i xDrive and the 840d, just like the coupe. The latter will not be sold in the US. The M8 will definitely happen but it may not be ready until the 2021 model year.

But the 850i xDrive will be a serious performance machine in its own right. Based on the specs of the coupe, it’ll develop around 523 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque, and will make the sprint to 60 mph in around 3.6 seconds. As expected, pricing won’t be cheap. In Europe, the M850i xDrive Coupe begins at 125,700 euros, so figure at least another 5,000 euros on top of that for the Gran Coupe. The M8 Gran Coupe, however, could have a sticker price of at least 150,000 euros.