It doesn’t directly preview any one production car but rather an entire line-up of dramatic, imposing EVs with the range, kerb appeal and technological functionality to really move the premium EV game along.
The signs are hugely promising: the cosy, minimalist cabin is a pretty vocal pushback from the incremental industry-wide shift towards drab, dreary cockpits, and the technology housed within seems set to tangibly improve the driving experience, rather than impede it. And while the Neue Klasse’s defining design cues are perhaps no less ostentatious than those of BMW’s most polarising recent efforts, the sharp, cab-back silhouette and muscular proportions go some way to reassuring us that not all new-age EV saloons will be amorphous, anonymous, aero-obsessed blobs.
There will be vocal detractors to the decision to swap physical controls for voice activation, those who argue that a full-width head-up display will be distracting on the move and possibly even more critics of that striking new front-end design. But perhaps all comers can be united in agreement that BMW’s ‘new class’ of electric cars will strike a commendable balance between honouring the most celebrated aspects of the firm’s historic models and warmly embracing the future.