In April 2005, the BMW Z4 2.0i was launched in the marketplace. It was intended to replace the BMW Z4 2.2i as the entry-level version. By comparison with the Z4 2.2i, the car did not simply have reduced series equipment, the main difference was the drive unit. The Z4 2.0i was the only model to have a four-cylinder inline engine rather than the six-cylinder inline power plant. The model was built in Spartanburg (USA) until December 2008. Over this period, a total of 16,623 units were produced.