BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor arrives. It carries bicycles.

The BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor is a more rugged take on the Concept Active Tourer, aimed at the ‘Outdoor’ set and previewing the new, FWD, BMW 1-Series GT.

[nggallery id=1567 template=customlinks]

We’ve already had a preview of BMW’s ‘Green’ take on the new FWD 1-Series with the Concept Active Tourer ahead of the Paris Motor Show last year, and now we get the ‘butch’ take on the same theme – the BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor.

But unlike most car makers, who make their pseudo off-road saloons ready for the great outdoors with raised ride height and bolt-on plastic cladding, all BMW seem to have done is fit the Tourer Outdoor with a bicycle carrying system.

But unlike most bicycle carrying systems that bolt the bikes to the back of the car, BMW’s system puts the bikes under cover in the back on built in, retractable carriers. And to make sure your dirty, oily bike doesn’t trash the interior of your new BMW Outdoor, BMW has given the Tourer Outdoor tough surface treatments in MoonRock Gray and MoonWhite plastic.

Apart from that, it seems all is the same as the Active Tourer Concept we saw last year, apart from the gold paint job.

That means a 1.5 litre, 3-cylinder engine (fitted transversely) that drives the front wheels and, with help from an electric motor, delivers 188bhp and performance of 0-62mph in under 8 seconds and economy of 113mpg.

The Concept Active Tourer Outdoor previews the new range of BMW 1 and 2-Series FWD cars that will be built using the same platform as the next generation MINI.