The Neue Klasse (German for New Class) was a line of sedans and coupes BMW produced between 1962 and 1972. That brand name is making a comeback with a line of all-electric vehicles—starting in 2025 with a 4-door sedan—tentatively called the Vision Neue Klasse. The ‘Vision’ in the name is an indication that we’re looking at a concept vehicle.
The Vision Neue Klasse might look familiar, and that is because it is an evolved version of the i Vision Dee we saw earlier this year. However, we’re not looking at the final iteration; BMW has bought a couple of years time to refine this new Neue Klasse. In case you missed the story last time, the idea of the Neue Klasse—when it comes to design—is to keep it simple and minimal, as opposed to polarizing designs coming out of Munich lately.
Notice that the “Kidney grille” stretches across the full width of the car but doesn’t look ugly; BMW classifies those LED elements as headlights, but it remains to be seen how they’ll evolve into the production model. It appears that the designers have tried mimicking the front design at the back as well, but I’m not entirely sure if they’ve succeeded. But anyway, the front grille and the E Ink elements in the lower portion of the side windows perform a welcome animation. The car rides on 21-inch aerodynamic wheels. The car’s exterior is painted in something called “Joyous bright” featuring a subtle yellow hue, with black side skirts and bumper elements offering the necessary contrast.
While the exterior design looks almost close to production, the interior design still looks very concepty, but it has to be said that there’s a significant evolution. Minimalism is the order of the day with barely any physical controls. The steering wheel also has touch interfaces, and it appears that the door handles also have touchy controls. In addition to that odd-shaped floating touchscreen, there’s a full-width display (called BMW Panoramic Vision) on the dashboard, which most likely accommodates displays for the outside camera-mirrors. Drivers can move content shown on the central display to the Panoramic Vision with a simple gesture. The front seats are attached to the floor by a single bracket, freeing up additional legroom for the rear occupants. Last but not least, the interior is completely free of decorative chrome or leather.
Detailed technical information is not available yet, but BMW suggested that the Vision Neue Klasse will pack “highly efficient electric motors”. There will be major advances in the new BMW eDrive technology including newly-developed cylindrical battery cells, with more than 20% higher energy density than that of the prismatic cells previously used. The 6th generation eDrive technology is claimed to offer improved charging speeds for Neue Klasse models by up to 30%, in addition to boosting their range by up to 30%. As a result of all these measures, overall vehicle efficiency is claimed to increase by up to 25%.
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