- Fuel or electrical, future BMWs can have the identical look
- Upcoming Neue Klasse EVs set stage for design of gasoline fashions too
- BMW offered extra EVs in 2024 than Audi and Mercedes-Benz mixed
Throughout a media roundtable at CES 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this month, BMW’s chief improvement officer Frank Weber, who’s been tasked with main improvement of BMW’s forthcoming product portfolio, declared: “A BMW is a BMW and for us that is so elementary.”
The chief was referring not simply to the automaker’s Neue Klasse EVs, which can launch later this yr, however to what is going to observe with gasoline tanks and tailpipes. What powers a automobile should not outline the design, in keeping with Weber.
“We will solely have one design,” Weber mentioned, adopted by “there isn’t any distinction between an ICE automobile and a battery electrical automobile.”
The difficulty with two designs stems from making one really feel newer and the opposite older or outdated, Weber defined. BMW gained’t attempt to promote an electrical automobile as “extra fashionable” than its different autos both, he mentioned.
BMW Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse X idea
In contrast to different automakers, BMW is within the strategy of embracing the identical important design language amongst each inner combustion engine autos (ICE) and battery-electric autos (BEV). Smaller variations akin to grille shapes or rear diffusers may be completely different, however the language and essence are the identical as seen with the present 5- and 7-Collection lineups. The i4, i5, and i7 all appear to be they match alongside their gas-powered siblings.
The chief famous that splitting EV design utterly from gas-powered automobiles is “most likely one of many largest errors among the opponents have been doing.” BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse EVs, then again, will share their design with gasoline-fueled fashions, Weber confirmed.
If it is a large mistake by Weber’s description, BMW made it too. The automaker’s early EV, the i3, featured futuristic design that stood out from the remainder of the lineup. The identical could possibly be mentioned for its wild i8 plug-in hybrid sports activities automobile that got here alongside the i3. The iX crossover SUV has stood otherwise in design from different fashions for a number of years, although it’d bridge the hole between right this moment’s gas-powered lineup and tomorrow’s Neue Klasse EVs.
2024 BMW i4 M50
Audi reported that in 2024 it offered over 164,000 EVs, whereas Mercedes-Benz mentioned it offered 185,100 EVs, and BMW mentioned it offered 426,594. Weber attributed BMW’s EV gross sales dominance over fellow German luxurious manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and Audi in 2024 attributable to its technique of all automobiles getting equal design remedy.
Mercedes and its lineup of EQE and EQS EVs shifted to a cab-forward design language that’s markedly completely different from each its E-Class and S-Class sedans and its GLE and GLS crossover SUVs. Notably, the brand new electrical G-Class appears like its gas-powered sibling except for its completely different wheels and grille.
Audi’s lineup of EVs, which incorporates two crossovers SUVs and a four-door sports activities sedan that’s a reskinned Porsche, doesn’t stand out just like the Mercedes EVs. These fashions mix into the automaker’s lineup by way of design.
What Weber confirmed gained’t change on this methodical shift to EVs is BMW’s hierarchical lineup of number-based mannequin sequence, which spans from a 1-Collection (X1, for the U.S.) all the way in which to a 7-Collection. “That is so valuable that you’ve a sure hierarchy that individuals know what to get,” he mentioned.
In accordance with Weber, sellers report individuals aren’t strolling in understanding which precise powertrain they need. Prospects are actually fascinated by it and asking themselves, “Am I prepared?” And if the reply isn’t any then the automaker’s in a position to accommodate that.
“The extra relaxed we’re and the extra they really feel revered within the technique of the corporate, the better it’s to promote autos,” Weber famous.
BMW paid for journey and lodging so we might carry you this firsthand report
