The 2017 BMW X1 PHEV was spotted randomly on road and a couple of spy photographs have emerged online.

The good news is, the car had very little camouflage on top of it making it easy to spot the design changes.

Hybrid vehicles are becoming increasingly popular and the upcoming BMW X1 will most probably have on such variant as well. It was evident from the sticker found in the test vehicle. Due to lack of camouflage material, it was easy to spot the hybrid sticker on the car and a charging port can also be spotted in the spy shots. The port is located near the front fender, close to the driver’s seat. The particular model is anticipated to go on sale this year and an official announcement could take place in a couple of weeks.

BMW is slowly adding newer vehicles to the plug-in hybrid lineup in the United States. A consistent increase in customer demand is a significant reason which has led to increased number of hybrids being launched. The company earlier launched the X5 xDrive40e and the 330e. Both models witnessed decent sales records encouraging BMW to come up with other PHEV models. The X1 is next which is constructed on the UKL platform with a front wheel driving system.

While the brand is yet to officially announce details of the powertrain used in the car, it is expected to utilize the 1.5-liter I-3 engine. It will be fused with an electric motor, similar to the one found in the Euro market 2 series active tourer. The gasoline powered engine is capable of rendering a total of 134 horsepower coupled with 162 lb feet of torque while the adjacent electric motor will deliver 87 horsepower. When both engines work together, a combined output of 221 horsepower is generated bringing it to an impressive level of performance.

Buyers will have to be satiated with the fact that BMW offers a single transmission option. The six speed automatic transmission will be the only gearbox variant available and there are no other options available. The model uses a front wheel drive system but is expected to be altered to rear wheel or all-wheel drive based on the mode that is currently active. Three different modes will be used by the PHEV 2017 BMW X1 including an Auto eDrive, Max eDrive and the save battery mode.

The car shares a lot of similarities with the gasoline model except for the hybrid sticker and powertrain modifications.