In an interview published Monday, BMW North America CEO Tom Purves said BMW was poised not only to outsell archrival Mercedes-Benz again but, for the second year running, become the top selling European brand in the United States. He also commented on the forthcoming X5 SUV, saying its launch would be “very soon.” He said the new truck would not be substantially bigger than the current X5, as some reports had suggested. “The reality is when you make a bigger truck, you can’t make it handle like a BMW,” said Purves. “We can’t bring a big Range Rover-sized vehicle as a BMW. The reality is, the bigger you get, the more difficult it is in getting it to handle like a BMW. Our interest is in how the passenger and driver relate to each other in the car and how much space they have in the interior of the car and packaging that.” Interviewer Diana Kurylko asked Purves about the company’s plans to bring the 1-Series to North America. “It is absolutely coming,” he said. “The 1-Series is a big hit in Europe. It always was planned that we would not have the hatchback and there is always a gestation period for other models.”
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