While us enthusiasts are frothing at the mouth over cars like the new BMW M5, upcoming BMW 8 Series and soon-to-be revealed BMW Z4, the Bavarians are looking even further into the future. This sort of forward thinking isn’t a new concept, as all car companies have visions of many years into the future. But the current vision of BMW’s future is of the BMW iNEXT, the brand’s upcoming all-electric, highly autonomous concept car, which has just been teased far ahead of its 2021 debut.
“The iNEXT project is our building kit for the future. It will benefit the entire company and all our brands. For the first time, we are combining all key technologies for future mobility in one vehicle. The iNEXT is fully electric, fully connected and also offers highly automated driving. Today, we gave our shareholders a very first glimpse of the design of the BMW iNEXT. Later this year, we will be presenting the BMW iNEXT as a Vision Vehicle.” said BMW CEO Harald Krüger.
This teaser is about as vague as it can possible be. However, it does hint at something interesting. Take a look at the roofline in this teaser photo, as it seems to have a long roof, something typically associate with either a wagon or SUV. And we highly doubt that the BMW iNEXT, the car that the Bavarians are hoping will help shape the brand’s future, will be a wagon. So it’s likely to be some sort of SUV or crossover.
Though, that same long roofline also seems quite low and the windshield is aggressively raked, so BMW could be hinting at some sort of coupe-like SUV or something sportier than a traditional crossover. This isn’t much of a surprise, though. We’ve heard that it would be some sort of SUV. Plus, take a look at what most other traditional automakers are doing with their first true electric cars of the future — the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes-Benz EQ C — all of which have some sort of long roof. None of them are sedans or coupes. So expect the BMW iNEXT to be similar.
The BMW iNEXT will be built at the Dingolfing Plant beginning in 2021. So we have a long way to go before we actually see the car. Though, according to Krüger, we should see a Vision Concept of this upcoming fully-electric, fully-connected and highly autonomous BMW later this year.
