The automotive landscape must be stacked to the sky with kindling right now. It seems like it takes little more than a spark of interest in one odd duckling of a model to create a wildfire of a new segment. From the monsoon of crossovers currently drowning our fair nation's freeways to weird hatch/crossover/sedan creations like the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo and Honda Accord Crosstour, market segmentation is all the rage right now, and it doesn't look like it'll be slowing up anytime soon.

According to Autocar, Land Rover may have started something with its LRX Evoque. The site claims that BMW may be looking to broaden its X lineup with the addition of an X4 – which would predictably fall just above the X3 and below the X5 – to do battle with the new low-riding Land Rover. Odds are that where Land Rover and BMW trod, others soon will follow. Autocar even goes on to say that an X4 would make it easy for the company to roll out an X4 M, complete with a 350-horsepower 3.0-liter twin-turbo I6 borrowed from the upcoming 1 Series M Coupe. Yes, it would probably sell like hotcakes, even if we can see no reason to blast the X stable into ever finer divisions.

[Source: Autocar]
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