When Herbert Quandt saved BMW from bankruptcy (or from being taken over by Mercedes) from 1959, he had the BMW 1500 pulled up as an ambulance: newly developed down to the smallest sheet metal part, the ‘New Class’ became the core of an ultra-modern model family that crazy how unprofitable offer of Isetta supermini and baroque angel executive limousine replaced.
This Saturday, in the run-up to the IAA, CEO Oliver Zipse (59) is presenting a car for the second time in the company’s history under the slogan ‘New Class’, which is intended to redefine the entire BMW brand. But unlike 60 years ago, the new will not replace anything old. Instead, the future model family will be created alongside the previous one.
For months, the group has been drumming more or less openly for the project: First, the project name was smuggled into the public domain. In January, there was a concept car called Dee at the CES electronics fair in Las Vegas, which was supposed to present the digital functions. And since the summer, BMW has been showing the IAA showpiece, probably the penultimate milestone on the way to the finished car, to important suppliers and other interest groups in small groups.
“This is a vision vehicle, not yet the final concept vehicle,” Zipse commented on the car in advance. “But the main idea can be conveyed very well this way.”
“Hands on the Wheel, Eyes on the Road”
And that is: After ten years of hesitation, BMW wants to make a big leap into the electric age and throw a lot overboard in the process. Unlike the rolling luxury lounges, in which ex-Audi boss Markus Duesmann (54) saw the future of premium mobility until his resignation, Zipse and his head of development Frank Weber (57) continue to focus on the classic distribution of roles in the car : A person should be in charge. “The new class takes nothing from the past, except the idea that BMW stands for: hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.”
This is one of the reasons why the car is at the IAA as a compact sedan about the size of the 3 Series, which has been the epitome of BMW identity for decades (and the next series to be replaced). The form is again emphasized simple.
“We wanted to reduce the number of parts and completely replace chrome with light effects,” says BMW chief designer Adrian van Hooydonk (59). From his point of view, the detoxification was due, and it also saves production costs. “I think BMW will be a different brand when we have launched the new class. Ten years ago, the i3 was the harbinger of changes to come. The new class is no longer a harbinger, but the implementation.” It’s about showing that “such a car can become a BMW despite all the changes.”
Combustion engine technology
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Simple, but clearly tailored to the driver: At BMW, the vision vehicles also continue to have a steering wheel
Photo: PR
Technically, BMW’s next generation of electric cars is a leap in many respects: instead of prismatic (i.e. square) cells, round cells will be used as energy stores in the future. They can be integrated into the load-bearing structure, thus saving space and weight. The energy-intensive on-board and control electronics were redesigned around four computing units, which are divided according to functions from “driving & propulsion” to “infotainment”.
BMW claims that the car will be 25 percent more efficient than today’s electric models. With 30 percent more range and 30 percent shorter charging times.
Above all, the building blocks can be integrated into other models. Because in Zipse’s eyes, the new class is more than a product or a platform. “It’s an idea that the whole company can benefit from.”
This means that the two-digit billion investments in the model launch of the electric architecture are designed in such a way that everything that is not directly related to the electric drive can also be transferred to conventional new BMW models from 2026. This applies above all to the electronics, which are now by far the most expensive part of automotive development. Functions for partially autonomous driving or the interior electronics with the integrated head-up display will also appear in the future generations of the conventional X5 and X7. This should also help to create the promised “margin parity” between the electric models with their expensive batteries and the combustion models.
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Combustion engines form the basis, electric cars ensure growth: BMW boss Oliver Zipse is planning the future of the group on two tracks
Photo: Michael Dalder / REUTERS
Zipse, so misunderstood for a long time
, is planning to continue on a two-pronged basis, the main difference compared to the new start 60 years ago: on the one hand, the company already sells the most electric cars of the three German luxury brands. On the other hand, he stubbornly refuses to give an end date for the production of internal combustion engine cars. Zipse’s calculation: In the foreseeable future, sales of internal combustion engines will not decrease worldwide. This could bring BMW hefty revenues in a segment with declining competition.
At the same time, electric cars are driving growth. BMW calculates that it is not decisive for the future of the company how quickly the politically desired change to electromobility takes place. Zipse himself repeatedly sows doubts as to whether the electrical specifications can be met. His argument: One hundred percent electrification of the auto industry would make Europe vulnerable to blackmail from raw material suppliers like China.
First an SUV, then a sedan
Nevertheless, the new class assumes the role of the technology carrier. Prototypes of at least two series based on the technical basis of the show car are currently being tested: in 2025, a car in the format of today’s X3 is to roll off the assembly line at the new Debrecen plant in Hungary, followed shortly thereafter by a sedan at the Munich plant.
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It will be based roughly on the IAA show car. A lot of things, especially in the interior, are still clearly trimmed for show effect. “But the front will come like this,” says Zipse. At least half a dozen models should be based on the technical basis within a few years, including smaller cars. “We will price the new class as a premium product, but at BMW it was always about accessibility, and that will also be the case here,” says Zipse, without naming orders of magnitude.
How customers and competitors react to BMW’s promise of a new class will be shown at the IAA in the coming days. A good 60 years ago, the model at the time made the Mercedes competition nervous: “You could observe them,” wrote a trade journal at the time, “that slight nod of the head and pushing out the lower lip with which experts all over the world comment on the respectable achievements of their colleagues. “