WHEN EVEN BMW can’t
tell you what’s powering
a concept car, you know
just how much free rein the
designers have been given.
This, after all, is a company
with ‘Motor’ in its name and
not to be able to imagine that
side of the equation — or at
least reveal it — is telling.
So don’t expect to see
the Vision Next 100 on a
forecourt, because it is a
concept car in the purest
sense. Instead, delve into
the details and pull out
the threads that BMW —
and others — expect to be
dominating our car landscape
in the coming generations:
from autonomy, through to
manufacturing techniques,
aerodynamics and interior
digital treatments and
connectivity options.
The key — unanswered —
question remains whether
customers will fall in line
with the regulations being
set and the car makers’
response to them. Reports
suggest fewer than 30,000
BMW i cars were sold globally
over the past 12 months —
hardly a return on the megabucks
investment required
to launch the brand.
BMW boss Harald
Krüger insisted on Monday
that its investment in
electric technology was
“a marathon, not a sprint”
and highlighted how BMW i
technology is filtering back
to the main brand via its
plug-in hybrids. He may
well be right: advances in
consumer understanding,
infrastructure and
incentives, as well as
punitive legislation against
combustion-engined cars,
could finally tempt and force
car buyers’ hands in equal
measure
But for now, he faces an
anxious wait — and that
must, in part, explain why
we still don’t know what will
power the BMW of 2116.
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