BMW Teases Very Little Of Its Vision iNext Concept

The next-gen electric BMW is embarking on a world tour next week.

Want to know what BMW's next concept car will look like before it unveils the thing? Yeah, we do too. But after looking at this latest round of teasers, we're still left wondering.

Dubbed the Vision iNext, Munich's forthcoming concept is slated to set the stage for its next generation of electric vehicles – first and foremost a battery-powered crossover to take on the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model X. It's an emerging market segment that Audi's going after as well with the upcoming E-Tron and Mercedes with the EQC.

Over the course of the next five years or so, we can expect every luxury automaker under the sun to get in on the game, and BMW won't want to miss out.

To that end, the Bavarian automaker is anticipated to roll out its electric crossover in 2021 (just three years from now). But before it does, it'll give us a preview of what to expect with the Vision iNext concept in the coming weeks. And it's cooked up a rather unusual showcase for the vehicle.

Rather than fly journalists in to see it, BMW and Lufthansa Cargo are sending it around the world in a specially equipped Boeing 777. The plane will take off from Munich on September 9, hitting New York, then San Francisco, and finally Beijing before returning to Frankfurt on September 14 – all over the course of five days.

The airborne showcase is being outfitted with ten high-lumen projectors, 78,000 LEDs, and four and a half miles of wiring... all installed in the jet aircraft to highlight the new concept. Here's hoping it proves worth the effort.

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BMW Vision iNext Teased With Gigantic Grille

And we mocked the iX3 Concept for having a rodent-like grille.

After showing a few vague sketches, BMW has released a couple of revealing teaser videos for the Vision iNext Concept, which will preview BMW’s answer to the Jaguar I-Pace. We still know very little about the electric crossover concept, but these latest videos give us a better look at the electric crossover before its debut.

The most striking feature is an illuminated version of BMW’s signature kidney grille, which makes the iX3 Concept’s rat-toothed grille look small by comparison. It’s gigantic and doesn’t look very flattering, to put it kindly. The chances of the production model getting the same grille are slim, however, as the design will likely be toned down by the time the electric crossover enters production. Above the grille is a slim pair of headlights that appear to blend into the side windows.

At the back, the concept features extremely thin taillights and what looks like faux diffusers. Previous sketches have shown the concept sporting square wheel arches, a sloping roofline and a short rear end. Overall, the design seems to be inspired by the Vision Dynamics concept unveiled at Frankfurt last year. Slated to go into production in 2021, the production iNext will be fully electric and serve as BMW’s technological flagship. It will be one of 12 electric cars BMW will launch by 2025.

Level 3 self-driving technology will feature, meaning that drivers will be able to take their hands off the steering wheel for extended periods but will still need to be attentive and take over if required. The iNext will also be capable of Level 4 self-driving, but the technology may not be available to the public at first.

It will ride on BMW’s all-new modular architecture, which supports a range of battery sizes. A 60-kWh battery would provide a 280-mile range, while a 120-kWh model would have a 435-mile range. With two electric motors, the BMW iNext will develop 443 hp, but as much as 800 hp could be possible with a third motor. BMW will reveal the Vision iNext concept on September 9.

BMW Vision iNext Previews Future Flagship Electric SUV

The production model will arrive in 2021 as BMW's first Level 3 autonomous vehicle.

After being shown to the press on a Boeing 777, the futuristic BMW Vision iNext concept has made its public debut at the 2018 LA Auto Show, previewing “the future of personal mobility.” Essentially, it previews BMW’s upcoming fully electric flagship SUV that will be loaded with autonomous and connected technology. BMW says the Vision iNEXT “represents a building block for the future of the BMW Group, encompassing technology, design and new ways of thinking that are set to filter through across the company and its brands.”

BMW’s i design language is clearly visible on the Vision iNext with its striking lines and sculpted surfaces. Accentuating the striking design is a Liquid Greyrose Copper paint finish, which gradually changes in shade from warm copper to dark rose. At the front is a modern take on the classic BMW four-eyed front end, with slender headlights, cameras replacing the exterior mirrors, and a windshield that merges seamlessly into a large panoramic roof. Like the iX3 concept, there’s also a gigantic kidney grille containing sensors for the autonomous system. At the back are slim rear lights and a racing-inspired illuminated diffuser that enhances the car’s aerodynamics.

The electric powertrain comes with front- and rear-mounted motors along with a battery tray under the floor. BMW claims the Vision iNext will do the 0-62mph sprint in about four seconds and offer a driving range of 380 miles. The production iNext will also be BMW’s first Level 3 autonomous car.

As a result, the interior is more like a living room than a traditional cabin, with a minimalist design that mixes wood, fabric and metal with. BMW calls this concept ShyTech - the idea is to keep technologies out of sight in the background and make them deployable only when required to give the cabin a more homely feel. The front seats are divided by a table-style console, while the rear bench can fit up to four passengers. The BMW iNEXT production model will roll off the assembly line at BMW’s plant in Dingolfing, Germany, in 2021.

BMW Teases Very Little Of Its Vision iNext Concept

The next-gen electric BMW is embarking on a world tour next week.

Want to know what BMW's next concept car will look like before it unveils the thing? Yeah, we do too. But after looking at this latest round of teasers, we're still left wondering.

Dubbed the Vision iNext, Munich's forthcoming concept is slated to set the stage for its next generation of electric vehicles – first and foremost a battery-powered crossover to take on the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model X. It's an emerging market segment that Audi's going after as well with the upcoming E-Tron and Mercedes with the EQC.

Over the course of the next five years or so, we can expect every luxury automaker under the sun to get in on the game, and BMW won't want to miss out.

To that end, the Bavarian automaker is anticipated to roll out its electric crossover in 2021 (just three years from now). But before it does, it'll give us a preview of what to expect with the Vision iNext concept in the coming weeks. And it's cooked up a rather unusual showcase for the vehicle.

Rather than fly journalists in to see it, BMW and Lufthansa Cargo are sending it around the world in a specially equipped Boeing 777. The plane will take off from Munich on September 9, hitting New York, then San Francisco, and finally Beijing before returning to Frankfurt on September 14 – all over the course of five days.

The airborne showcase is being outfitted with ten high-lumen projectors, 78,000 LEDs, and four and a half miles of wiring... all installed in the jet aircraft to highlight the new concept. Here's hoping it proves worth the effort.

BMW Unveils Vision iNEXT Concept On A Boeing 777 To Give Us A Taste Of The Future

This is the thesis of BMW’s electric and autonomous future. Are you ready?

I was pointing the long blue nose of a Mustang south on the 101 heading towards San Francisco International Airport, quad pipes belting out a track that could go into the Automotive Industry’s Greatest Hits album while man and V8 muscle raced through Tesla’s backyard, when a thought surfaced. “BMW sure has a funny way of revealing the car of the future,” I thought to myself.

Little would doubt it upon learning that in order to underscore the gravity of the Vision iNEXT concept, BMW borrowed a Boeing 777 from Lufthansa and turned its interior into an exhibition room where it would bring an auto show-grade reveal to four cities, Munich, New York, San Francisco, and Beijing.

If walking past one of the plane’s gargantuan twin engines before boarding wasn’t enough theater, a litter of lights and motorized movable platforms lay within the Boeing’s belly, ready to spin and light up the concept car inside. As the German automaker’s latest crack at shaping the electric and autonomous future, the iNEXT Concept launches the car world further into a mildly dystopic future than just about anything else on the road or in the industry’s pipeline, spliff-smoking Elon Musk included.

Its looks, an attempt to answer the question, “What does a vehicle look like which no longer needs to be driven by a person but can be if desired?” can be described using the word “polarizing.” To call BMW’s answer to that question futuristic would be an understatement, but to label the Vision iNEXT sexy may be a stretch.

The first thing the eyes notice are the thin strip headlights, which melt into a black body line that circles around the hood and eventually widens to encompass the greenhouse. And then there’s that odd interpretation of the classic BMW kidney grille that resembles the letter “H,” made by joining the midsections of both fake kidney grilles.

As a fully electric vehicle capable of Level 5 autonomy (though early production versions will likely not be allowed to use it), the Vision iNEXT has no need to divert air under its hood to cool an internal combustion engine, but it does need a convenient place to stash some of the 33 sensors that feed the autonomous system’s computer without making the Bimmer look too foreign to buyers. The Vision iNEXT is an intermediary car after all, a product intended to bridge the gap between today and tomorrow, and the grille helps serve that purpose.

Renamed the “intelligence panel,” it hides the unsexy hardware required for autonomous driving underneath its 3D-printed surface. The blunt tip of intelligence panel is needed to prepare the viewer for the bulbous silhouette that is the body. Despite looking like a capsule from some angles, BMW tried to liven up the iNEXT's CUV dimensions by using a defragmented aesthetic for aerodynamic elements, by employing a more jagged cutout for the side window profile, and by underscoring the large wheelbase afforded by the lack of a combustion engine with 24-inch wheels, flared wheel arches, and a blue accent line that connects front and rear wheel wells.

Cameras replace side mirrors and unintentionally add to the capsule aesthetic, door handles are replaced by sensitive portions of door panel that respond to touch by illuminating, and warmer tones of paint transition to darker shades as the eyes move rear.

Due to the lack of safety regulations governing autonomous vehicles, the exterior is more likely to make it to the production version of the Vision iNEXT—set to debut along with BMW’s suite of fully autonomous technology in 2021—than the interior is.

Like the exterior, the color-segregated cabin features a lot of visual treats while somehow appearing to uphold simplicity. To reduce the sense of clutter, BMW placed only two screens inside the crossover, a smaller unit in the driver’s field of vision to display pertinent driving information and a larger screen to the right of that to allow visual interaction with the AI-powered infotainment system.

As a vehicle that lays the foundation for BMW’s future, the Vision iNEXT advertises that designers think people will tire of so much technological interaction in the future. The cabin, styled after boutique hotel lounges and aimed at being a hypothetical owner’s “favorite space,” has been stripped of almost all buttons and features no screens for rear seat occupants

Without buttons, controlling vehicle functions requires occupants to use touch-sensitive wood and cloth surfaces that blink to life and display artificial buttons when in contact with skin, or to bark orders at the AI assistant following the “Hey BMW” activation command.

Rear-seat occupants who braved the i3-like suicide doors and stepped into the lounge seats have access to a revolutionary entertainment system that uses projectors to beam video, text, and interactive controls onto the white pages of a book included in the rear seat.

BMW designers envision using a system similar to this as an augmented form of gesture control, allowing occupants to control HVAC or audio settings by beaming the buttons onto the palm of a passenger’s hand. Marking the point of transition between autonomy and driver-centered design are wooden pedals and a sleek steering wheel. Both of these retract into the firewall and dash when a driver switches from the human-piloted “Boost” mode and into the autonomous “Ease” mode, allowing them to turn and talk to other passengers or pull out a laptop and join a conference call.

If all those bells and whistles sound like they use a lot of power, rest assured, range is still a priority for BMW. While the engineering team still has work to do to get the Vision iNEXT’s modular platform out in a variety of iterations, BMW is aiming for a range of 600 kilometers (375 miles) per charge in the resulting vehicles. When that goal is reached, the landscape of the automotive industry will begin its most radical change to date. We know this because the Vision iNEXT is much more than just a concept car, it’s the blueprint from which all future BMW’s will spawn.

It’s a glimpse into the future of the company and our city’s streets. It’s a bridge to that future from our current position in the present. It’s the stepping stone that provides a traversable surface between an analogue today and a digitized, driverless tomorrow. It’s a promise from BMW that we can expect to see that Blue and White Roundel, the same one that still prides itself on the raw appeal of “sheer driving pleasure,” well into the future.

The future is coming, and yes, it’s electric and driverless. The future is coming, and no, Tesla won’t be its only architect. The future is coming, and wouldn’t you want the people who spend their weekends shredding tires in M4s designing it?