BEIJING MOTOR SHOW: BMW 9 Series breaks cover

Just as reports suggested it would, BMW has used today’s Beijing motor show to unfurl an extravagantly appointed luxury limousine concept that could reach showrooms called the 9 Series.

Ingeniously dubbed the Vision Future Luxury, the lavish four-door design study looks a lot like the opulent Gran Lusso coupe concept BMW showed at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este show’n’shine on Italy’s Lake Como last May.

However, unlike the two-door Gran Lusso concept, which could likewise herald a large two-door production that may revive the 8 Series nameplate, the four-door Vision Future Luxury features two rear-hinged ‘suicide’ doors.

Both top-end luxury models are likely to be based on the same all-new platform as

The 9 Series would also provide BMW with a direct response to super-luxury limousines like Bentley’s $400,000-plus Flying Spur and the upcoming Maybach derivative of Mercedes-Benz’s new S-Class, without treading on the toes of its own Rolls-Royce Ghost ($645,000) and Phantom ($855,000).

Few hard facts were revealed at the concept’s reveal today in China, BMW saying only that the Vision Future Luxury “furnishes a long-term outlook on the perception of modern luxury for the BMW brand. It stands for a forward-looking fusion of exclusivity and innovation, for a driving experience that is at once emotional and exclusive.”

BMW says the big show car’s cabin features an initial base layer of fine carbon fabric, followed by a functional level featuring user interface components, control and display interfaces and lighting functions, which in turn is followed by a further structural, load-bearing layer of aluminium for additional strength.

“Finally, the top layers comprise wood, then leather, to create a warm and comfortable ambience. In a given area of the interior, the multi-layer structure is ‘milled down’ to the appropriate depth depending on what surface material and what function is required,” says BMW.

“Since the interior geometry is therefore always pared down to essentials, this cuts total weight substantially. This treatment also makes for virtually seamless transitions and very elegant, fluid surfaces.”

The underlying carbon layer is visible in the doors, under the seats and the odd “pared-down” B-pillar, the top half of which is traditional and the bottom half of which is integrated into the front seat structure.

BMW says the four-seat Vision Future Luxury’s wide-opening coach doors would not have been possible without this new carbon B-pillar solution.

“Innovative technology and modern luxury have always been an important part of BMW’s brand DNA,” said Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.

“We use visionary concept vehicles like the BMW Vision Future Luxury to show where we may be going with these themes in the future, and to give us new inspiration and motivation. The BMW Vision Future Luxury – with its innovative technologies and with meticulous precision and quality in every detail – takes our thinking on modern luxury a logical stage further.”

Other design highlights include a wrap-around instrument cluster comprising three intermeshing, three-dimensional displays, “generating an impression of unprecedented depth and spaciousness”.

The left-hand display mainly presents vehicle-related information, while the central programmable cluster displays engine and road speed and “context-adaptive supplementary data, which is displayed as and when relevant”. On the right, the Driver Information Display provides voice-controlled infotainment information.

The primary “contact-analogue” BMW Vision Head Up Display can highlight buildings, traffic signs or hazards, in addition to tradition head-up driver assistance functions such as Speed Limit Info and Traffic Light Assistant, which provides real-time information about traffic light phasing.

The front passenger also scores their own Passenger Information Display, which is connected to the Driver Information Display via a touch-sensitive panel and allows information to be exchanged between driver and front passenger using swiping movements.

Aplications like booking opera tickets online direct from the vehicle via the BMW ConnectedDrive Luxury Concierge service can be displayed in the Passenger Information Display, where they don’t risk distracting the driver.

Other new technologies include two rear-seat displays set into carbon surrounds and a detachable Rear Seat Touch Command Tablet, which can communicate with the front displays and also with the BMW ConnectedDrive services to display everything from trip-related information like speed and journey time to Luxury Concierge Services info and, of course, online entertainment content like internet-based video and music streaming as well as gaming.

Of course, there’s a plethora of hand-crafted interior trim highlights, including the finest-quality aniline leather in Batavia brown and a lighter Silk shade, Silk nubuk leather and warm brown, layered lime wood.

However, there’s no sign of the Gran Lusso concept’s tobacco-brown Foglizzo leather, Italian virgin wool headlining featuring a ‘Principe di Galles’ pattern and kauri wood inserts sourced from a single piece of the rare New Zealand timber that was “aged more than 48,000 years”.