CARS I PEOPLE I SCOOPS I MOTORSPORT I ANALYSIS – THE MONTH ACCORDING TO CAR
FIRST KLASSE
After the shock of BMW’s Neue Klasse saloon concept, here’s the SUV version that will actually be the first to make production.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
‘Nothing is more important than the Neue Klasse,’ pronounces the senior VP responsible for delivering it, Dr Mike Reichelt, before initiating the 2024 equivalent of whipping the covers off the new Neue Klasse X concept.
Following Reichelt’s words on how Neue Klasse is BMW having ‘fundamentally rethought the car’, the very ‘embodiment of transformation’ and the result of ‘the biggest investment in the company’s history’, this is initially a little underwhelming. Especially given the immediate impact of the preceding Neue Klasse saloon concept, which looks so unlike any current BMW.
Perhaps there’s not a huge amount you can do with the functional necessity inherent in a two-box SUV. But the Polestar 3’s nose-mounted wing and the Lotus Eletre’s illusions of sleekness seem more innovative.
Take a step back, however, and consider the Neue Klasse X both more holistically and in greater detail. Note the smooth, relatively unfussy ‘monolithic’ surfacing, and the design and engineering work that’s gone into reducing the number of parts.
Observe how the lengthy wheelbase pushes the 22-inch wheels out to the corners. Admire the depth of the glasshouse and the slender pillars, which mirror the saloon concept and aim to recapture the light and airy cabin feel of classic BMWs past, helped by a vast glass roof.
Whisper it, but that bluff upright nose and those big-but-not-too-big vertical kidneys – set to become a Neue Klasse signature, but only on SUV variants – even manage to evoke the spirit of the 2002, a car lauded for its combination of contemporary brand rejuvenation, tightly realised purpose and agility. The extensive illumination is a conscious, era-defining move to ‘replace chrome with light’, says the head of BMW i design, Kai Langer. Elsewhere the concept deploys reflective surfaces to the same effect – around the Hofmeister kink, for example.
Now compare it to other recent BMW SUVs, and the X seems pared back and sparse, detached from any desire to shock. Almost as if BMW was always planning to put us in a position where a more restrained design direction would have us all breathing a sigh of relief. Langer doesn’t acknowledge this but does speak of wanting to create sporty looks that aren’t overtly aggressive.
So when Reichelt proclaims ‘It must be an X’, explaining it is this concept and not the saloon that will make production first in 2025, he’s referring not just to the reality that X models are what BMW’s current and future customers want (some 12 million hav
