We Finally Know the Name of BMW's 1st 'Neue Klasse' Car, and When It'll Arrives
Since the summer of 2023, BMW has been teasing its next generation of cars with a line of Neue Klasse-branded concepts. These cars represent ideas for the future of all of BMW's sedan, crossover, and M performance businesses, but they are also representative of specific future products around the size of the current 3-Series and X3. Now, we finally know when one of those actual future products is set to be revealed. BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse has announced at the company's annual conference that the all-new iX3 — effectively the production version of the Vision Neue Klasse X — will debut at Munich's IAA Mobility auto show in early September.
BMW has also shared official images of the production version of the iX3 and a still-unnamed sedan, presumably an electric 3-Series, iun testing. The images of camouflaged cars don't reveal much, but the design does look in line with a previously-leaked patent rendering of a production version of the iX3 crossover.
Both the sedan and crossover variants of the Vision Neue Klasse had a focus on massive, low-slung side windows that increase natural light within the car's airy cabin. Photos of camouflaged production cars indicate BMW has gone with a more conservative approach on the final cars, but both vehicles still seem to have unusually large side windows. The unique lighting-based interpretations of BMW's famous kidney grilles seen on the concepts are hidden under camouflage, but the shape beneath the camouflage suggests some version of those design elements may have made their way to the production cars.
The two upcoming cars on the Neue Klasse platform are just the beginning of a new product wave; BMW says that 40 new and refreshed models will be revealed between now and the end of 2027. Some of those updates should be major design updates to current cars that bring models like the new M5 in line with Neue Klasse's design direction, a possibility that would be in line with Zipse's claim that all new launches "will have the DNA of Neue Klasse." That cycle of updates and unveilings starts with the reveal of iX3 in September.
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