He notes that while using retro design can aid familiarity, there must always be a balance when it comes to pushing new tech. “We want to take a big leap, but we want to take the customers we have with us into this new future.”
Speaking about future Neue Klasse models, he adds: “Since they will come in such short succession, you will see a strong overlap, perhaps stronger than when you do a whole model generation in 10 years, which is what we used to do.
“We used to have 10-year cycles, often starting with the 7 Series and then trickling down, and then the last one would come 10 years after the first one. Now the change will come in a relatively short space of time, so it will feel like we turn the pages all at once.
“Two years isn’t a long period of time, so it will appear as if they have grown together a little more – but you will still recognise individual characters.”
Van Hooydonk hints that the order in which the six EVs will be released will be dictated by “lifecycle mainly” but also “where we feel demand is strongest for change or technological update”.
Return to factory settings
The Neue Klasse EVs will initially be built at BMW’s new factory in Debrecen, Hungary, in a process that is said to be entirely free from fossil fuel, be much more dependent on the use of secondary materials and have a lower CO2 output.
Its factories in Munich and Mexico will get the necessary upgrades in 2026 and 2027. Just as revolutionary as the new concept’s tech and design is its interior, which previews how the ninth generation of BMW’s iDrive operating system will reshape the brand’s approach to interior design.
Neue Klasse interiors
Neue Klasse EVs will be marked out from current cars by their minimalist cockpits, which feature only the bare minimum of physical controls, even dropping the iDrive rotary control knob that has been a hallmark of the brand’s interiors since the E65-generation BMW 7 Series arrived in 2001.