The BMW Neue Klasse Is The Brand's Styling Future

Over the last few years, BMWs have been getting more angular, more aggressive, and packing ever-larger kidney grilles. Judging by the Neue Klasse concept, though, things are about to change direction dramatically.

“The design of the Neue Klasse is typically BMW and so progressive it looks like we skipped a model generation,” BMW Group’s design boss Adrian van Hooydonk says. BMW’s press release meanwhile describes the car as a “glimpse of the future for the BMW brand: electric, digital and circular". It's very much a preview of things to come, and a production version will be here as soon as 2025.

We have slimmer, wider kidney ‘grilles’ stretching across much of the front end, which is slanted forward in the classic BMW ‘shark nose’ style. The whole thing’s rather boxy, or as BMW puts it, “almost monolithic,” and the glass house is prominent. The base of the C-pillar, meanwhile, has the classic ‘Hoffmeister Kink’.

The first BMW to use the Hoffmeister Kink is the car this concept takes its name from - the BMW Neue Klasse or ‘New Class’ of the 1960s. That’s one of, if not the most important cars in BMW’s history. It set a template that the company would follow for decades to come, so the fact the name has been used for this new concept is quite a statement of intent.

Those kidney grilles, by the way, aren’t grilles at all. They’re effectively giant light clusters that integrate the headlamps and a 3D animation effect to give the look of a grille. Meanwhile, layers of 3D printed parts are used “to create a unique impression of depth” in the rear light clusters. Around the sides, E-ink is used in the lower portions of the windows to create a welcome gesture.

Inside, there’s a sea of brightly coloured fabrics, a big central screen, and a noticeable absence of a traditional instrument cluster. Instead, the Neue Klasse gets ‘BMW Panoramic Vision’ - a head-up display that stretches right the way across the bottom of the windscreen. You also won’t find many physical buttons in there, as the next-gen iDrive system used here places more emphasis on voice controls.

BMW hasn’t given any specifics regarding the powertrain, with development boss Frank Weber instead just promising “30 per cent more range, 30 per cent faster charging, 25 per cent more efficiency,” from the powertrain.

The “circular” bit is all about recycling - both in terms of the materials the car is made from, and what happens to all that once its first life is over. It’s made from more “secondary raw materials” than a typical production car, and is designed to be easier to take to pieces.

The car will be on display at the Munich IAA motor show.