9:24 am, September 6, 2023
BMW’s Neue Klasse vehicles won’t be a sub-brand, one of its bosses has vowed.
Whereas BMW’s electric vehicles have been part of its ‘i’ sub-brand until now, Mike Reichelt, senior vice-president for Neue Klasse, says this next generation of vehicles won’t come under one banner.
It suggests that Neue Klasse will simply become the core of BMW’s line-up.
Reichelt has been involved with the Neue Klasse programme since its creation in 2020 and is now looking to the future as the brand looks to release six models before 2028.
It’ll include the 3 Series-sized model that was revealed in concept form at the Munich Motor Show.
This saloon will be the first Neue Klasse vehicle to be launched, but it’ll be followed swiftly by a mid-size SUV similar in shape to the current X3.
‘What we want to do is have Neue Klasse as the middle of the brand – it’s not an isolated project like “i”. What we’ll call this car will be communicated later – but it won’t be a sub-brand.
The Neue Klasse previews an electric 3 Series
‘The brand is optimised for electric vehicles so yes, it’s fully electric.’
It’s hinted that the BMW Neue Klasse concept could take over the 3 Series badging, although what would happen to the existing combustion-engined version isn’t clear.
‘We used all our lessons learnt from i3 to the current electric generation to get all the right information and knowledge into the future.
‘It’s the chance to start from scratch but it’s only once in a lifetime that you have this chance. You need to integrate all the knowledge and lessons learnt.
‘We’ve created Neue Klasse vehicles so that we can produce them alongside existing [petrol and electric] vehicles on the same assembly line – we can do both.’
