BMW's assymetrical X Coupe for Geneva Show

A car to get its European premiere at next week’s Geneva Motor Show breaks every tradition about a car’s styling being symmetrical.

Indeed, the BMW X Coupe which was unexpectedly first shown in Detroit earlier this year makes a practical virtue out of many of its assymetries, most of which aren’t immediately noticable when the car is viewed.

And then this concept - which is just what it is, of course - also breaks the preconceptions and traditions about what a sports coupe should be powered with, and where it might go. Because it is diesel-powered and is presented also as being able to go offroad.

At first glance, the X Coupe is arrestingly BMW, as the grille design clearly shows its pedigree. But the designers have equally clearly been given - and have accepted - a licence to be very creative.

The car is aluminium skinned. And is very strongly sculpted, not necessarily a BMW tradition. They’ve come up with a name for their shaping of the panels ... Flame Surfacing.

They say this technique provides a ‘visual tension’ of lines and forms which change direction and plane. Case in point: the overlap of the front fender panels with the doors.

Then back to that assymetry. If you check both sides and the rear window, you’ll find each side is different. The practical reason for this is only seen when the rear deck is lifted to allow entry to the back seats. There’s only the one way in or out - the ‘safe’ side.

There’s also contraditions to the traditional grammer of rear lights clusters ... again, each is subtly different, and it might take somebody with design training to see that they ‘point’ in the same direction. But without realising it, most of us would subconsiciously feel it to make sense. And there’s another practical detail - the lights have a facility to indicate to a following driver just how hard the car is being braked.

Inside, the X Coupe concept is stark, functional and different. Very clean surfaces, some pretty retro switches, and a gearshift lever that could have come straight out of the future. A multifunctional screen information system only becomes visible when a similar smaller lever is pulled.

A concept it may be, but there’s nothing conceptual about the engine: it’s the 3-litre turbodiesel outputting 184bhp which is currently available in the 5-Series.

There’s more. But the pictures really show the beast. And we’ll see if we can find out more in Geneva.

Whatever, even if the X Coupe doesn’t make it to the road as is, there’s no doubt that we’ll see many bits of it appearing over the next few years.