BMW To Offer 25 Electrified Vehicles by 2025, Half Pure-electric
This week (embargoed to tonight) BMW flew around the world to give a peek at its plans for electrified vehicles beginning next year and revealed a concept vehicle, the BMW Vision iNext. It was a unique international press briefing/air show; BMW partnered with Lufthansa Cargo to create a flying showroom in a Boeing 777F, taking its Vision iNext on an around-the-world show from Munich-to-New York-to-San Francisco-to-Beijing, before returning to Frankfurt.
The Vision iNext is a concept that provides a preview of what BMW’s electrified offerings will look like in the 2020s. Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Development, explains “The possibilities opened up by autonomous driving, and ever-expanding connectivity enable a whole new range of experiences and ways of shaping a journey. With this in mind, we have designed the all-electric BMW Vision iNext as a mobile environment that enhances the quality of life, a new “Favorite Space” in which we can be ourselves and relax. Indeed, all of BMW’s endeavors will continue to revolve around people–and their needs and desires when it comes to mobility–in the future.”
Intelligent Electrics
Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design sums up the creative approach: “BMW i exists to generate creative, pioneering ideas which transform the way we think about mobility. The BMW Vision iNext marks another next big step on that journey of transformation, showing how more intelligent vehicles can make our lives easier and more beautiful.”
The Vision iNext, while a representation of BMW electric vehicle aesthetic and not a planned production model, is about the dimensions of a midsized SUV (currently occupied by the BMW X5). The platform is designed to accommodate ICE, PHEV and BEV drivetrains, offering a flexible, optimized production driven by customer demand for a particular technology. BMW, like Mercedes-Benz, is hedging its bets right now on what kinds of vehicles its customers want and doing it a cost- and risk-efficient way.
A Flexible Platform
The iNext is the baseline platform that BMW is developing for vehicle manufacturing tooling and components for its next generation of vehicles. The iNext platform architecture is configurable as front-, rear-, and all-wheel-drive. This flexibility, along with BMWs continued modernization of its factories, will allow the company to quickly configure its manufacturing to meet the demand of any number of vehicle configurations. By 2025, the BMW forecasts that they will be offering 25 models with electrified drive systems, 12 of which will be pure-electric.
The first of these new vehicles will launch in 2019 with the Mini BEV, which is a variant of the Mini 3-door. This BEV will be produced at the Mini factory in England with its electric powertrain components made at BMWs plants in Germany.
In 2020, BMW will introduce a new compact sport activity vehicle (BMWese for SUV). The iX3 SAV will feature the fifth generation of BMWs eDrive technology and will be their first “no-compromise” fully battery electric SUV.
The iX3 will be a compact SUV, but this BEV will be the first to use the modular packaging from the Vision iNext. The modular construction of the technology will enable the iX3 and other future Vision iNext vehicles to be adapted to multiple performance levels, wheelbases and widths.
BMW claims that the BMW iX3 electric motor will develops over 200 kW/270 horsepower and have a range in the European WLTP cycle of more than 400 kilometers (249 miles) with its 70 kWh battery and can be charged at 150 kW charging stations. Expect that the iX3 will be available in front, rear and all-wheel-drive variants.
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I hope iNext looks better in the flesh than by pic. Long time BMW fan – wondering if they have lost the plot. We just want good, solid EVs, to follow the excellent i3.
Mini EV might cut it as i3 city car replacement, but why not do the 5 door Countryman?
@Pete Gorton,
We hear you loud and clear on the styling. BMW clearly believes that EVs should look distinct from their ICE brothren. It’s the Prius approach as opposed to the Civic Hybrid. We agree with you about the Mini. Bring it on. –ed.