BMW reveals its future with Neue Klasse

The all-new Vision Neue Klasse platform marks the start of a total reset for BMW and the entire company is riding on it, according to BMW chairman Oliver Zipse.

Revealed today ahead of next week’s Munich motor show, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse (New Class) platform was launched underneath a compact, sub-BMW 3 Series-sized design concept that will inspire the next-generation BMW 3 Series and 5 Series electric model lines, starting with the next iX3 SUV.

They will be the first of six new models to roll out in quick succession using the new architecture, from 2025.

The production Neue Klasse cars and SUVs will be zero-emission only, with the only powertrain choices being either battery-electric (EV) or hydrogen fuel-cell (FCEV) systems, with power outputs ranging from 200kW to at least 1000kW for high-performance models.

But for the Vision Neue Klasse, BMW doesn’t even bother with claiming power or performance figures, because it prefers people concentrate on the digital and design features of the car.

The external design builds on the BMW Vision Dee concept from the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, while the internals feature BMW’s ground-breaking, all-new mechanical, powertrain and electronic architectures, all rolled into one machine.

“The Neue Klasse means nothing less than the future of the BMW brand,” Zipse said today.

“The Neue Klasse combines our ability to innovate in the core areas of electrification, digitalisation and circularity.

“In this way, we are able to stay two steps ahead of the future. The Neue Klasse is already bringing mobility of the future to the roads of 2025, and leading BMW into a new era.”

Zipse claimed the production versions of the Neue Klasse, which will debut around the cycle time of the new iX3 and 3 Series in 2025, would be the most recyclable production cars ever built.

Pointing to the iVision concept, he also claimed it will use more recycled material than any production car before it, to lower the sunk CO2 in BMW’s new cars so they achieve environmental benefits sooner.

Zipse has been consistent in both playing up the public impressions of the Neue Klasse and ramping up the pressure on his own engineers over the last year by calling it “a crucial piece”, “nothing less than the future of the brand” and “the most important BMW technology in 50 years”.

The new platform will feature next-generation BMW EV powertrain technology, with “more output, new cell chemistry and new cell formats”.

Unlike the hybridised current architectures, which house everything from electric to diesel and petrol to plug-in hybrid powertrains, the Neue Klasse platform will be strictly EV-only when its production begins in Debrecen, Hungary in 2025. It will also eventually be built in China, Germany and Mexico.

Designed by UK penman Maximilian Resch, the Vision Neue Klasse concept elevates BMW’s digital game with a full-width, three-dimensional head-up display (HUD), dubbed Panaromic Vision, across the inside of the windscreen.

Besides the usual HUD information like speed, navigation and speed limits, it can simultaneously accept up to three widgets swiped up from the centrally located multimedia system.

The Vision Neue Klasse also has a remarkably clean and clear dashboard, covered in recycled materials, but you barely notice any of this because of the steering wheel…

Reminiscent of the tiny Vision Dee concept from the CES, the Vision Neue Klasse sends the message that messy, overly designed BMWs are gone, and that clean is the new creased.

It also marks a return to proportions ruling every design idea at BMW, and underscores that light is the new chrome. The kidney grille is now full-width and is a lighting element, rather than chrome.

It visually breathes when you approach it, and the BMW roundel is etched onto the bonnet, in the deep groove between two styling pieces, rather than sitting proud of it.

The traditional kidney grille has been getting wider with each generation, and now it’s essentially full width, with no chrome.

It’s black, with unique lighting elements to mimic breathing, starting with larger lights at the bottom of the grille and tapering away to smaller ones at the top.

They light up from the bottom to inhale, and black out from the top to exhale. It’s a good party trick as you approach it.

There are no door-handles, because the user interface software wakes up with a digital handshake as you approach, and you simply put your phone near the sensor on the side.

The bottom segment of the side windows even use E Ink, developed by BMW’s Australian engineer Stella Clarke, to welcome drivers and direct them to the opening sensors.

So here’s where it gets weird with the BMW Vision Neue Klasse. And not in the way that you expect.

There’s a full-width 3D Panoramic Vision HUD across the bottom of the windscreen and a central multimedia display, but it’s the steering wheel that takes all the attention.

BMW interior designer Martin Schmid has done away with the traditional three-spoke wheel, and switched to a two-spoke version, with the spokes running north-south.

He says BMW can do this because, with no instrument cluster, there’s no reason for the driver to look through the top of the steering wheel any more, and it makes the cabin seem cleaner.

“Before there was a screen, we wanted the iconic spoke steering wheel,” Schmid explained.

“We have the best grip this way, the best position of the hands for driving, and we fill the empty room.

“Leaving out the central spoke gives a more spacious feeling, but we checked every control element in the simulator to see if we still needed it.”

Even so, Schmid admitted it took “six months to design it, then two years convincing them it was a good idea.”

There’s a display tilted towards the driver, who simply takes widgets from the multi-media screen and swipes them up to the full-width HUD, with up to three at a time there. Exceed the maximum and the oldest widget returns to the MMI.

There are a range of driving modes, from Sport to Comfort, and the Sport mode also reduces the interior lighting to a bare minimum.

The other significant factor here is that BMW has essentially admitted that gesture control is a technological dead-end, while voice control is on the rise.

The Neue Klasse underpinnings will make their debut in the next iX3 in 2025, followed quickly by the 3 Series-sized i3 sedan and wagon.

The architecture will accept cylindrical battery cells to power anything from one to four electric motors, depending on the use case for the model.

That means it will cover relatively simple city-based cars, all the way up to high-performance M cars, at up to 1000kW, according to BMW development chief Franz Weber.

“It will have 30 per cent more range, 30 per cent faster charging and 25 per cent more efficiency,” Weber insisted.

“With the Neue Klasse, we have embarked upon the biggest investment in BMW’s history. It will impact all new model generations.”

It will also accept hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains, which BMW has been beavering away on for decades as a long-range, zero-emissions option.

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