BMW is creating a very new car structure designed primarily for battery-electric automobiles. It’s known as Neue Klasse. To date, we all know it’ll underpin the absolutely electrical 3 Sequence and X3, however a brand new report says it can be utilized in even smaller EVs.
Autocar says BMW is already onerous at work creating two separate compact fashions that may come to be often known as the i1 and i2. They may each function non secular successors to the i3, BMW’s unique bespoke EV. Though it could have regarded a bit ungainly, it was at one level the world’s second-best-selling EV after the Nissan Leaf.
BMW has made a small bespoke EV earlier than
The BMW i3 was a particular EV as a result of not solely was it constructed on a bespoke EV platform, however it was developed specifically for it and never used for an additional mannequin. It was fairly well-liked when in manufacturing and at this time makes for an excellent used compact EV purchase.
By the point BMW pulled the plug on the i3 in July 2022, it had been in manufacturing for nearly 9 years, and over 250,000 automobiles had been delivered worldwide. At present, BMW sells the iX1 and iX2 as its smallest electrical choices. Nonetheless, each are repurposed combustion automobiles, so they’re nowhere close to as cool because the i3 with its boxy form and light-weight carbon-reinforced plastic polymer construction.
The brand new i1, believed to debut in 2027, will likely be an electrical hatchback, the electrical equal of at this time’s 1 Sequence. The taller i2 crossover will observe one yr later, and the supply report says it will likely be out there in two flavors: a boxier, extra sensible physique type and a coupe-like mannequin just like at this time’s iX2.
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Identical to Kia, which has two variations of its bespoke EV platform, BMW has additionally developed two flavors of the Neue Klasse platform: the rear-wheel-drive NAx will likely be used for the whole lot from 3 Sequence fashions upward, whereas NBx will underpin smaller front-wheel-drive fashions. Each variations of the platform may have the choice of dual-motor all-wheel drive in additional potent mannequin variants.
The primary Neue Klasse-based BMW will debut subsequent yr. It would be the manufacturing model of the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse X idea (pictured), a direct alternative for at this time’s iX3. Subsequent will observe a 3 Sequence-sized sedan previewed by the Imaginative and prescient Neue Klasse idea, which needs to be unveiled quickly after and possibly enter manufacturing in early 2026.
BMW sees the introduction of Neue Klasse as reinventing itself. All Neue Klasse automobiles will function the identical design language we’ve already seen on the 2 ideas, and they’ll have minimalist interiors made out of extra sustainable supplies than what the producer makes use of at this time. They may have even fewer bodily controls than at this time’s minimalist fashions and focus extra features on the big central touchscreen operating a next-gen model of iDrive.
These new fashions will roll off the manufacturing line at BMW’s plant in Debrecen, Hungary. They may function batteries with 20% higher power density (due to new sixth-generation spherical battery cells), cost 30% faster and have 30% extra vary than the EVs it sells at this time. Neue Klasse will help 800-volt EVs, however smaller choices just like the i1 and i2 could also be downgraded to 400 volts, equally to what Kia is doing with all sub-EV6 fashions.
