When BMW introduced a long-term battery partnership with Rimac Expertise in 2024, the instant assumption was that the collaboration would feed instantly into the Neue Klasse program. It appeared just like the logical pairing: a clean-sheet EV platform assembly one of many trade’s most superior battery specialists. However shortly after the deal was revealed, German media reported a clarification from BMW that reset these expectations. Chatting with Golem.de on the time, a BMW spokesperson acknowledged that the cooperation “will not be associated to the New Class deliberate for 2025” and as a substitute helps BMW’s effort “to supply totally electrical options on different platforms.”
Neue Klasse Fashions to Use Gen6 Expertise
That element considerably modifications the context of the partnership. BMW has already dedicated the primary wave of Neue Klasse fashions—starting with the next-generation iX3 and electrical 3 Sequence—to its in-house Gen6 cylindrical-cell know-how. These batteries are far alongside in industrialization, with a number of international vegetation below development and automobiles already testing full packs. Nothing Rimac contributes at this stage can alter or change that trajectory.
The place May Rimac Match In?
But BMW’s clarification additionally opens an equally vital query: if Rimac’s batteries should not supposed for Neue Klasse, the place will the corporate apply them? The reply could lie in BMW’s current electrical lineup, particularly the fashions constructed on the CLAR structure such because the i5 and i7. These automobiles will proceed nicely previous the center of the last decade, and whereas they’ll obtain facelifts, BMW has already hinted that these updates won’t embody a swap to Gen6 cylindrical cells. The 2 platforms are essentially totally different, and a mid-cycle conversion is each technically difficult and costly.
That creates a possible hole between BMW’s quickly advancing battery know-how and the rest of its electrical portfolio. As Neue Klasse ushers in main positive aspects in effectivity, charging efficiency and vitality density, the present i5, i7 and iX are nonetheless utilizing Gen5 prismatic cells initially developed a number of years in the past.
Rimac’s involvement arrives at a second when such upgrades can be strategically helpful. The Croatian firm has spent the final decade creating a variety of high-voltage battery codecs, from structural H- and T-shaped packs to superior cooling methods designed for sustained excessive masses. On the 2025 IAA, Rimac Expertise additionally unveiled its next-generation strong state options and evolution of the present batteries and e-Axles.
Whereas Rimac is finest recognized for its hypercar functions, its new settlement with BMW was not framed as a distinct segment, low-volume provide deal. Rimac itself described this system because the “largest and most formidable undertaking” in its historical past and confirmed that “a good portion” of its Zagreb campus will probably be devoted to constructing the required automated manufacturing traces.
That scale suggests an utility broader than halo fashions or limited-run efficiency automobiles. It aligns extra intently with BMW’s have to preserve its present electrical lineup aggressive alongside the extra superior Neue Klasse automobiles arriving from 2025 onward. If BMW intends to supply higher-density or extra environment friendly battery techniques for CLAR-based EVs throughout their lifecycle—with out adopting Gen6 cylindrical cells—Rimac represents one of many few companions able to delivering an alternate resolution that matches throughout the constraints of the prevailing platforms.
No Affirmation But From Both Firm
Whether or not such a plan is underway stays unconfirmed and it’s pure hypothesis in the mean time. Each corporations have stated extra particulars in regards to the collaboration will probably be shared at a later stage, and neither has commented on how the Rimac-built techniques will probably be positioned inside BMW’s broader battery technique.
What is evident is that BMW intends to run a number of electrical platforms in parallel for the rest of the last decade. The corporate will nonetheless promote the i5 and i7 till at the very least 2029 on the present CLAR structure. Then new merchandise just like the iX5, iX6 and iX7 will nonetheless run on CLAR however these will carry Gen6 know-how. So the partnership with Rimac has to suit someplace and will arrive at a second when BMW’s pre-Neue Klasse EVs would profit from a significant technological step ahead. It’s additionally doable that Rimac Expertise is engaged on different battery options as nicely that might make their method into different future BMW merchandise as nicely.
Till BMW outlines the precise deployment, the scope of the collaboration stays one of many extra intriguing unknowns within the model’s electrification roadmap. But, the query will not be whether or not Rimac batteries will seem in future BMWs, however reasonably which of them—and when BMW plans to disclose them.
[Images by Rimac Newsroom]
