As BMW continues on the road to its incoming Neue Klasse EVs, the automaker has dropped another concept car to whet people’s appetites. The BMW Vision Neue Klasse X concept doesn’t appear as far-out as the Vision Neue Klasse sedan concept from last year, but there might be a good reason for that. In fact, this electric crossover concept might be a whole lot closer to the incoming production-spec Neue Klasse iX3 crossover than you might expect. After all, the first Neue Klasse car is expected to go on sale next year, and instead of an electric 3 Series, it may actually be a crossover.
On the outside of the BMW Vision Neue Klasse X, there’s a lot of modern BMW design language going on, but a dash of legacy here and there. A much sharper kink in the greenhouse than on the current X3 evokes the original E83 model, while tall kidney grilles set into horizontal elements incorporating non-round headlights seem to be a nod to the BMW 2000 from the original ’60s Neue Klasse series.
However, despite a kink and perhaps inspiration for a grille, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse X isn’t a retro design. There’s plenty of the monolithic surfacing and slightly fussy details we’ve seen on cars like the 2 Series and 5 Series, a potential sign that this design may be further along than you might expect. Plus, it’s unusual for a concept car to have shut lines around bumpers and hatch moldings, legally-mandated rear reflectors, or interior rearview mirrors. In fact, everything we see on the outside of this Vision Neue Klasse X concept lines up with spy shots posted on the Bimmerpost forum. Overall, I reckon the styling of this crossover isn’t bad. It’s certainly the most successful modern integration of vertical kidney grilles we’ve seen, and the plunging greenhouse is as quirky as it is useful for visibility. If the production version looks like this, it should appeal to new customers without scaring off old ones, a tricky balancing act.
The first production-spec Neue Klasse EV will arrive in 2025, and it’s likely to be a compact crossover called the iX3 with the chassis code NA5. BMW currently makes an iX3 for the rest of the world that’s just an electric X3, but the next-generation X3 and iX3 are expected to diverge. BMW has confirmed that it’s planning Neue Klasse model production in Debrecen, Hungary, so expect this new model to be made there first. However, don’t be surprised if a North American plant, likely San Luis Potosi in Mexico, starts producing Neue Klasse EVs at a later date to grab those sweet, sweet Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.
Given what BMW’s already confirmed about the Neue Klasse platform, expect an 800-volt high-voltage architecture and Tesla-like cylindrical battery cells, which BMW touts as 20 percent lighter than the prismatic cells used in models like the current i4. Expect rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive, battery pack sizes between 75 kWh and 150 kWh, and bi-directional charging. Future M models may even have four motors for 1,341 horsepower. Porsche Macan EV, who?
Of course, the inside of the Vision Neue Klasse X is largely fantasy, but looking past the candy cane colorway and concept car materials, there are some details that should make it to an eventual production model. That giant horizontal screen BMW’s calling the Panoramic Vision is expected to form the basis of the next generation of iDrive. As for the iconic once-loathed now-loved scroll-and-jog-wheel controller? It’s gone in this concept, likely due to changing customer tastes. It wouldn’t be the first time, seeing as how iDrive 9 in the BMW X1 already doesn’t feature a traditional iDrive controller, but it would feel like the end of an era should this change make it to the eventual production model.
In any case, we should know next year if BMW’s incoming compact electric crossover looks a whole lot like the Vision Neue Klasse X. While there’s not much reason to believe that drastic changes will occur between concept and production, it’s entirely likely that little details will change. Think valences, along with more obvious stuff like mirrors and wheels. Still, if this is what the future holds, consider our curiosity piqued. A compact, practical, big-windowed crossover with non-hideous styling that promises an impressive electric powertrain definitely has a market, and it could be exactly what BMW needs to surf the electric wave.
(Photo credits: BMW)
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Looking pretty decent. Almost too clean.
Take away the matte paint, the thin pillars/bezels and the interior (which will certainly happen before production), and I think it’ll unfortunately fade into the sea of crossovers.
right; it’s a gorgeous greenhouse, but unless those are titanium pillars they’ll never make it to production being that thin. Just shows us what we can’t have!
Cartoon Class.
So no interior buttons? Swing and a miss there.
‘Non hideous styling’ you say? Nope. Not seeing it.
This is ugly as sin and 1300 hp should be illegal on public roads. Next.
butterface
If the iX is a beaver, this thing is a naked mole rat
At this point I’m convinced that there’s someone living in the rafters of BMW’s design office, Scooby-Doo villain style, who comes out by night, grabs the latest designs ready for exec review, and sharpies a Hitler ‘stache on each and every one of them.
Somehow the execs haven’t noticed.
I’m not sure what my appetite is after this, but it ain’t whetted.
It’s like that Seinfeld episode with the girl Jerry can only look at from certain angles!
After a dozen Guinness, 4 shots of Jameson and an Espresso Martini or 2, I can say with about 70% confidence the side profile looks ok. The rest? Even this amount of alcohol can’t help this pig.
Like others said; side is decent, back is ok, front is horrible. It looks like a photoshopped hodge podge AI generated mess. It actually makes the i4 & XM front look good by comparison. BMW design used to be universal across all models, now every one is it’s own unique disaster.
I see an i3 with elephantiasis, begging to be taken out back, to be put out of its misery.
A second gen i3 is such a missed opportunity… all it needed was a fully modern EV powertrain, the design worked already perfectly for what the vehicle is meant to be.
Preach! I drive a 2014 BEV. It is the perfect city car.
Face inspired by Skeletor.
BMW still can’t shake the clumsy surfacing.
Going to be real, for all the complaining about Chris Bangle back in the day – and even today, in spite of him being out of the industry for 15 years – Adrian van Hooydonk was the real villain this entire time.
“We’ve traced the call, and it’s coming from inside the house!”
Yeah I think I’d have to agree with that. It feels to me like they hit this apogee with the 3rd gen 6 series grand coupe. Like it just looks good. And then something happened and it’s all now a complete and utter disaster, like unraveled all the way
In that case the designer – Nader Faghihzadeh – left BMW in 2019 to join a Chinese brand (AVATR). I wouldn’t say that the stuff he’s working on right now is the best stuff he’s ever done but it’s slightly telling that the surfacing there is a lot more coherent than what BMW has been doing for a long time.
Guess who was a designer for the E65, and the lead designer for the E63? Adrian van Hooydonk
So all this time, what we thought was Bangle Butt was in reality, Hooydonk-a-donk?
IT WAS HOOYDONK-A-DONK ALL ALONG
Finally, I kidney grille that doesn’t make me want to puke!
Did you see the rest of it?
That was my big take away from this styling exercise. A decent grille. My expectations are set very low.
Soooo, it’s an iX with a botched rhinoplasty?
That screen gives me hives.
Calling this hideous would be putting it lightly
The side profile is fine, but that front end is another continuation of the awful looking BMW front ends of late.
Nice to see the grill trending towards more normal proportions. Maybe BMW design stopped hiring out-of-work caricaturists from the local carnival/beaver festival.
The bidirectional charging is good.
Hopefully that tacked on paralleogram touchscreen is axed for a regular rectangular one or at least a trapezoidal one the matches the rear view mirror above it.
The side profile is clean and I don’t hate it one bit. The rear is also clean and not overwrought. The wheels look good. The face of it makes me think of the new CX-90 in that it’s too flat and looks like it’s had a low-speed impact with a wall. In both cases, certain angles exaggerate that issue.
I love how the bean counters determined that the original concept didn’t have enough grille, so they added gaping holes beneath the existing one
GAHHH. But we already have TOO MANY compact crossovers. Bring the sedan, instead!
I can’t say that I’m surprised, though. Automakers seem to have decided that Americans don’t actually want “cars”. Which, granted, lots of them do not. But I still think that electric cars make so much more sense than electric crossovers with the state of technology as it stands.
If ever there was a vehicle that signifies that BMW has lost the plot to making driver centric Ultimate Driving Machines this is your car.
Yeah, it’s not good looking, in fact, it sucks
See, when people tried to justify the buck-tooth grilles by saying that old BMW kidneys were taller than they were wide, the were ignoring the fact that those old kidneys were proportionally tiny, and set into horizontal outer grilles. This is so much less garish.
Every bit as abdominally ugly as its predecessor, albeit the reduced grille size and less baroque BS all over the body is a step in the right direction for aero.