BMW has showcased the new flagship SUV for the electric i brand. Called the Vision iNext, the vehicle’s aim is to make customers appreciate what’s on the inside — which is important when you’re moving into mobility and out of driving. BMW claims that the model represents the union of vehicular autonomy, connectivity, electrification, and services. It also represents the end of the car as we currently know it.
Don’t confuse the iNext as the death knell of motoring, though. This remains a concept car, not something that you’ll see appearing in your neighbor’s garage in the coming months. Despite promising a production model in 2021, this is still a conceptual exercise — BMW’s attempt at building a crystal ball that allows it to peer into the future. While we’re not going to argue the validity of clairvoyance or scrying, we will suggest that the utility vehicle is probably a more useful forecasting tool than a glass orb and a gut feeling.
It’s loaded with cutting-edge technologies we’re likely to see gradually creep into automobiles over the next decade and some extra-fancy stuff that will probably remain limited to high-end nameplates. Powertrain details were absent but, even if they had been made available, they’d be largely meaningless. This is not foreshadowing any production model in BMW’s lineup so much as it’s a loose blueprint for the brand’s advanced, electrified future.
The Vision iNext serves as a reminder that BMW intends to begin selling 12 new EVs by 2025 (one of which will probably share its name) and claims to still be on track to deliver Level 4 autonomy by 2021.
While it has human controls for moments when you want to engage in some spirited driving, the iNext is clearly designed to encourage people not to use them. A projector in the car’s ceiling beams video onto any blank surface. Passengers can then use gesture controls to digitally “turn the page,” if they’re reading, or “change the channel,” if they’re watching television. While this isn’t actually all that more convenient than bringing a paperback or fully charged cellphone, it does show that BMW is aiming to surpass the status quo.
A large panoramic roof invites passengers to relax and take in the scenery while they enjoy a glut of natural light. Meanwhile, an Intelligent Personal Assistant ensures they’ll be able to continue taking it easy throughout the journey. The iNext can be seamlessly interlinked with the BMW Connected, smart devices and smart home network, making it possible for drivers to do things like adjust the thermostat or close the garage through in-car voice commands. Although, you could also use the center display in a pinch.
The interior is designed to be as lavish as possible and closely mimic a living space. It’s rear seat is a single wide bench covered in BMW’s “Enlighted Cloudburst cloth upholstery with its intricate Jacquard weave” and serves as the drivable apartment’s couch. Intended for two, it’s could easily facilitate more. However, that third occupant would be parked on the mid-seat gesture controls that allow riders to draw various symbols in the fabric that adjust audio levels or ambient lighting (or just doodle with help from the light projector). The rest of the iNext’s interior takes a more neutral approach. It’s minimal, modern, and beige with some natural wood thrown in for good measure.
About the size of a BMW X5, the iNext’s exterior could hint at that model’s eventual form. Everything is in roughly the right place — except for the side mirrors, which have been replaced by cameras. None of it is to scale, however. Forward and rear illumination points have been converted into paper-thin slits while the kidney grille has been oversized and stretched down to an extreme degree.
We’ve see this vertical, LED-lined grille design appearing on a few electric concepts lately. The four-door i Vision Dynamics “Grand Coupe” concept has one that is almost identical, meaning this could become a hallmark feature on models that don’t prioritize internal combustion. It looks completely ridiculous, though. Hopefully, that aspect gets toned down a bit before 2021.
[Images: BMW]
BMW got bought by KIA!
Right? Why would BMW eliminate the vertical space between their grille openings and ape KIA? So many car profiles look so similar now due to aero/fuel requirements and passenger/pedestrian safety regulations that any BMW using this concept grille is going to loom Korean. WTF?
Because all the original BMWs were butterfly, single piece grille designs. It’s not a KIA thing. It wasn’t until about the e36, e39, etc generation where they went to the double grill.
This is BMWs update to the classic grill. The M2 already has the single butterfly grill.
Don’t get me wrong, not saying I like the Vision concept “grills”, cause I don’t. I think BMW is really missing out on bringing that retro look back successfully because they’re trying to hide the radar in the bottom notch.
I gotcha. But even going back to the 02 series when they were one piece there was still a chrome strip dividing and here there’s nothing. Even if BMW can historically point back and say “see?!??” in more modern times it just looks a lot like the KIA tiger nose. It may very likely be the elephant in the room for some image conscious buyers.
But I did very much enjoy going back and looking at images of old Bimmers, thank you :)
Bigly bad. Amazingly, BMW’s design language peaked with Bangle and van Hooydonk. Flame surfacing is aging better than non descript soap bar.
External vomit bags deploy automatically in case anyone accidentally gazes upon this grotesque pos.
+1
It looks like someone got in the backseat without their bag.
With enough technology, perhaps this model can address the BMW turn signal paradox. Electrodes on the driver’s scalp could feed data to a distant super computer where analysis of the brain waves would predict the intent to change lanes. An AI algorithm would then activate the turn signal before the car moved into the next lane, neatly solving this age-old problem afflicting Beamers.
That rear seat reminds me of the 70s hippy meditation dope smoking orgy rooms, especially in Marin county. I guess with self driving cars and legal weed, let’s get this party started!
With the shag seats, I was thinking more of the ’70’s van craze. This thing just needs bubble windows on the sides with a Frazetta mural of a sword wielding valkyrie chick riding a dragon.
For public safety, this article needs to be deleted.
When you think it cannot get uglier… I would prefer Toyota for grill design alone.
This is what you get when you mate a 58 Edsel with a current Kia. A face only a mother could love.
Is there some sort of competition for “ugliest front end” that no one told me about?
“Vision iNext”
Oh pulllleeeeezz..!
The rear passenger isn’t buckled. Hopefully this is a hint that the car can’t actually move.
With all the photoshopping and hazy lens effects, there’s no telling what this thing actually looks like in real life.
The real car will have license plates, door handles and side view mirrors.
Someone else can be the beta tester on this awkward mishmash of German electrical engineering. I sure as heck won’t be.
And, BMW, by the way, Austin called. They need their steering wheel back now for the Allegro.
You’re right. There isn’t a clear shot in any of the photos.
“The vehicle’s aim is to make customers appreciate what’s on the inside” — because no-one’s going to appreciate what’s on the outside.
That rear seat photo is straight out of a 1950s Autorama brochure.
So at what level of autonomy do they activate the turn signals?
Lexus has the Predator, BMW fights back with Bucky Beaver?
Deserves to be shot into the sun.
Black hole sun / Won’t you come / And wash away the rain
Angry BMW is angry.
It makes me angry too.
It’s takes a lot for me to look at a car and go “Wow, that’s ugly”
Not the Lexus Spindle grill – on most Lexi
Not the Prius Prime or Mirai
But this one was “Wow, a face only a mother could love” moment.
And the strange styling choices continue inside with the “Let’s bring back shag carpeting” upholstery choice
That nose makes the Lexus cheese grater look good in comparison.
The BMW SUV of the future is an Edsall with shag carpeting?
Just….. Horrible trash
Slaying Lewks