Electric car: BMW is reinventing itself – Auto & Mobil

Finally a motorhome without a philistine look. Maximum fun for four people in a minimal footprint. The Mini Urbanaut doesn’t just want to be a car, it also wants to be a party lounge. In the urban jungle, the 4.46-meter-short van looks almost delicate. Especially when you compare it with the other electronic innovations from German production. The Audi Grandsphere (2025) and Mercedes EQS do not fit into any parking space or carbon footprint. With a length of more than 5.20 meters, over 500 hp and XXL batteries, their ecological footprint is larger than that of many combustion engines. With a weight of 3.5 tons, the Mercedes EQG (2024) scrapes hard along the border of the commercial vehicle. And Smart is becoming an obese family car that can do everything – except small and cheap. Is this the affordable transportation change people dream of?

In the hustle and bustle of the IAA, it was easy to overlook the relatively small counter-designs to the electric dinosaurs. Not just the Urbanaut, but also the BMW i Vision Circular, presented by company boss Oliver Zipse in the black Steve Jobs look. The four-meter cube radically breaks with all Munich design traditions. And it should – a little less futuristic – make sustainable mobility tangible for the broader middle of society: “Electric. Digital. Circular. This is what sets the New Class apart. It will produce a multitude of very different and surprising vehicles,” promises Zipse, ” We will start in 2025. Our concentrated know-how will flow into this development. And we are investing heavily. “

But do the Mini Urbanaut and a BMW in four-meter format have a chance at all? How does a medium-sized manufacturer want to put the car dwarfs on the wheels at a competitive price? Car making works like baking pretzels: if the number of pieces increases, the costs decrease. “At BMW, economies of scale are the be-all and end-all. That is why the New Class is so revolutionary for us, because it brings us back to the beginning of BMW: a basic concept that makes everything possible in the long term, from a 1 Series to a large sedan,” explains Frank Weber, after all, BMW is known for its highly flexible manufacturing system.

By 2030, BMW wants to grow to three million cars a year. New models are needed for this

New class? Something rings at the words. It was exactly 60 years ago that BMW just got around the corner. Neither the fat V8 baroque angels, nor the open sports car 508, let alone the Isetta cabin scooter flushed enough money into the coffers. The Munich-based company presented the BMW 1500 almost bankrupt at the IAA in 1961. The sedan was more efficient and more modern than the usual Beetle rear-wheel spin and was still reasonably affordable. This was only possible with a basic architecture that could be adapted for many model series. Now it should be that time again: “With the New Class we will take a similar big step again,” promises Frank Weber.

Open detailed view

BMW is rebuilding, not only its modular strategy, but also the production. A new plant in Hungary should help to increase the number of units from almost 2.5 million to three million cars a year before 2030, said production director Milan Nedeljković recently in an interview with the Handelsblatt at. The machine ballet will also be even more sophisticated at the other locations in the future: “We will reduce production costs per vehicle by 25 percent by 2025,” said Nedeljković. This is a crucial step to catch up with Tesla. The Californians can offer their vehicles comparatively cheaply because they don’t get bogged down with long equipment lists like the German manufacturers.

800 volts and long ranges: Nevertheless, the new e-cars should be affordable

It is precisely this freedom of choice that the BMW management keeps talking about. She is proud of the fact that a BMW 7 Series plug-in hybrid followed by the new BMW iX with its huge battery skateboard is trundling across the conveyor belt at the Dingolfing plant. You have to be able to afford this flexibility as a company. Which is significantly lighter for a 100,000 euro car than in the compact class. The Munich-based company therefore not only needs completely new, high-volume models such as a BMW small car and the Mini Urbanaut in order to increase sales by half a million vehicles a year. You also need a new modular system that makes diversity affordable. This is good news for customers who currently fear that many manufacturers will lose their niche models such as coupés, convertibles and station wagons.

“We have been practicing scaling across width, size and length for 20 years and understand it very well. That is why I dare to say today: The effects of scale will increase rather than decrease with electromobility,” says the Chief Development Officer. A modular system with identical parts and flexible plants on all continents have made the 3-series the ultimate BMW volume maker. The next model generation is due in 2025 – and it will be the first model in the New Class to be fully electric.

Frank Weber promises battery systems with a 40 percent higher energy density. As a result, a motorway car like the 3 Series can accommodate enough capacity over a length of 4.70 meters. “We are going into high-volume segments right from the start. So no test with a model that is then slowly being scaled up. With the new cluster architecture, we can map the entire BMW vehicle range,” announced Weber.

Open detailed view

Why not like that right away? Why not until 2025? You have to find the optimal combination for all future technologies, says Weber, at the moment the advances are not radical enough, or the costs are still too high. “The industry standard will shift to 800 volts if the charging infrastructure is expanded accordingly. You can guess how this will affect the new class,” said the board of directors: “The new class means that we also think fundamentally new, how to integrate batteries into the vehicle. The whole drive will be completely new – we call it generation 6 “.

Weber speaks of lower energy losses in the system through better thermal management, which increases the range, especially in winter. Tesla has been rumored about the frameless integration of batteries for some time, which would save a lot of space and weight if crash safety were guaranteed.

Steel, plastic and aluminum should be better recycled – the software too

The new architecture should not only be inexpensive, but also recyclable and climate-friendly. “By 2030 we will reduce our CO2 footprint per vehicle by at least a third,” promises Oliver Zipse, “instead of valuable primary materials, we will use secondary materials for our vehicles: recycled steel, plastic. Aluminum. That is a paradigm shift.” After years of hesitation, BMW wants to take a leading role in the industry again.

After taking office two years ago, Zipse replaced almost the entire board and abolished the tie requirement. But in the digital world, the Munich-based company remains a niche provider, even with three million devices per year. “The whole thing only works with sustainability and a really consistent digitalization offer”, Frank Weber admits: “That is the most demanding domain that we talk about in the car: digital car.”

While the other German manufacturers are bragging about their self-made operating systems (all of which are still a long way off), Frank Weber has made a much-discussed move for a cross-manufacturer solution. The problem is that too much software is encapsulated in many small control units and is difficult to recycle. This increases the one-time effort with every new model.

The Munich-based company does not want to commit to a premature end of the combustion engine as long as there is insufficient charging infrastructure. “Next year we’re bringing a completely new generation of gasoline, diesel and plug-in hybrids,” says Frank Weber: “These drives are all prepared for Euro 7. We’re not just bringing an update for the exhaust system, but a completely new one Combustion system that no one else has. ” BMW intends to use it to drive multiple tracks over the next ten years. Because the new class has the same return targets as conventional cars. But the money for the transformation is not being earned with small cars, but still in the highly motorized luxury class.