The BMW Vision Neue Klasse is providing an outlook on the future of the BMW brand. It will be electric, digital, and circular. With its newest vision vehicle, the BMW Group provides an outlook onto future BMW model generations.
The BMW i Vision Circular has demonstrated how bravely BMW Group is approaching sustainability: as the world’s first vehicle made up of 100 percent recyclable material, it represents the possibilities of a true circular economy. The BMW i Vision Dee as the ultimate digital companion has underscored the great importance of digitalization on the future of driving. Now, with its newest study, the BMW Group is setting its sights 2025 and beyond. “The BMW Vision Neue Klasse combines our ability to innovate in the core areas of electrification, digitalisation, and circularity,” says Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “The Neue Klasse is already bringing the mobility of the next decade to the roads in 2025 – and leading BMW into a new era.”
A new design – pared down to the essentials, with a holistic, future-oriented approach.
With a considerably large advancement in design, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse signals the start of a new era and the strategic significance of the Neue Klasse for the BMW Group. Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design, adds: “The design of the Neue Klasse is distinctly BMW and so progressive that it looks like we skipped a model generation.”
For the first visualisation of the Neue Klasse, the BMW Group designers deliberately chose the form of a sporty sedan. It embodies both the historic significance of the Neue Klasse, as well as a technological quantum leap into the future. No other vehicle shape more strongly embodies the core of the brand and the sporty essence of BMW. The reserved design language with an almost monolithic vehicle body accentuates signature features, like the kidney grille, the Hofmeister kink of the side window line, and the set-back passenger cell. At the same time, the fresh interpretation of the kidney grille and double headlights transforms the vehicle’s front end into a new and uniform interaction area.
Alongside its pared-down approach, the design of the BMW Vision Neue Klasse radiates an open and future-oriented aura. This is largely attributable to the extensive windows with low side lines, which, along with the giant glass sunroof, fill the entire interior with sunlight. The luminous exterior paintwork in “joyous bright”, with its subtle yellow hue, also underscores the progressive design of the BMW Vision Neue Klasse. The new aesthetic of the vision vehicle, with its pared down design language and positive aura, will shape the exterior design of all subsequent BMW models.
Outlook on the next generation of the BMW iDrive
Clarity, purism and human-centric controls also define the interior of the BMW Vision Neue Klasse. As a resolute continuation of the principles of BMW iDrive, the designers reduced the analogue operating controls to a minimum. Instead, human-car interaction takes place through the BMW Panoramic Vision. It forms an interactive combo, with the newly designed multifunction steering wheel and the Central Display with Matrix-Backlight technology as well as the tried-and-tested voice control of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant. Thanks to BMW Panoramic Vision, the Neue Klasse will be able to project information across the entire width of the windscreen. The displays are visible to all passengers and connect the real with the virtual world. With BMW Panoramic Vision, the Neue Klasse is not just receiving a new type of display, but rather altering the overall user experience for all its passengers. Drivers can, for example, move content shown on the Central Display to the BMW Panoramic Vision. The BMW Panoramic Vision is complemented by the new BMW 3D Head-Up Display for active driving situations, in which the required information, such as assisted driving or road guidance, is displayed in 3D animation with high precision in the driver's visual axis.
The BMW Vision Neue Klasse provides initial insights into a newly created display and control world. As it did 20 years ago when it was introduced, the new BMW iDrive continues to embody a reductive clarity and an intuitive comprehensibility unmatched by any other system. Like the exterior, the interior also projects a friendly and inviting feel. A light-colored instrument panel and cord fabrics create a modern and warm feeling of comfort on the four individual seats inside the spacious passenger cabin. The design of the interior, which is completely free of decorative chrome or leather, helps optimise the carbon footprint of the production process.
Wide use of secondary raw materials and comprehensive CO2 reduction.
The BMW Vision Neue Klasse also presents first solutions with its exterior, to increase the proportion of recycled materials while simultaneously avoiding mixed materials: easily removable components made of single-origin materials are one of the keys to optimised recycling processes, as they are to be utilised for the Neue Klasse. Contrast is provided to the visionary vehicle’s luminous exterior by black side skirts and bumpers. Manufactured at the new plant in Debrecen entirely without fossil fuels and with much wider use of raw and secondary materials produced with reduced CO2, the Neue Klasse will also provide significant impetus for resource-efficient individual mobility.
Efficiency enhancement at all levels, and in the tradition of BMW EfficientDynamics.
A growing number of people are concerned about the environment and endorse a responsible form of individual mobility. The Neue Klasse offers clear answers to this as well. The electric drive of the Neue Klasse with sixth generation BMW eDrive technology is continuing in the tradition of BMW EfficientDynamics by reducing every aspect of its energy consumption. The leap taken with the new BMW eDrive technology comprises both highly efficient electric motors and newly developed round battery cells. They contain a more than 20 per cent higher energy density than that of previous cells. The sixth generation of BMW eDrive will improve the electric range for Neue Klasse models by up to 30 percent. Increased use of secondary raw materials, resource-efficient production and a fully-electric drive train with sixth-generation BMW eDrive technology reduces the carbon footprint of the Neue Klasse across the vehicle lifecycle.
“30 percent more range, 30 percent faster charging, 25 percent more efficiency – the Neue Klasse represents a major technological leap that will take EfficientDynamics to new heights. The same applies to its design – which could not be any more futuristic,” says Frank Weber, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Development. “With the Neue Klasse, we have embarked on the biggest investment in the company’s history. We are not just writing the next chapter of BMW; we’re writing a whole new book. That’s why the Neue Klasse will certainly impact all model generations.”
The BMW Vision Neue Klasse represents the entire diversity of technological innovations with which the BMW Group is demonstrating its future potential. The BMW Vision Neue Klasse is symbolic of the new dawn for the entire company and the BMW brand and marks a new era in individual mobility: rich in digital experiences, with intelligent and innovative solutions, locally emission-free and circular in the long term, thus ensuring BMW's typical driving pleasure for future generations.
