BMW Vision Next 100 concept revealed

THE BMW Vision Next 100 concept revealed at the marque’s 100th birthday bash in Munich yesterday is only the first in a series.

Still to come are concepts from the BMW Group’s pair of British brands, Mini and Rolls-Royce. These will be revealed in London in June. BMW’s Motorrad motorcycle division gets its turn in Los Angeles in October.

“No-one can say what the next 100 years will be like,” BMW chairman Harald Kruger told media gathered in Munich for the big day. But the company does have some idea of what’s coming in the not-so-distant future, he added.

Instead, they preferred to swing the focus to tech bling. The Vision Next 100 has fully enclosed wheels, helping the low, wide four-seater achieve a claimed Cd figure of 0.18. Stretchy skin around the wheelarches permits the front wheels to swivel for steering.

While there’s a trad kidney grille, it doesn’t flow air to a radiator. BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk said he believed the future of the brand’s visual signature was as a site for the sensors required for autonomous driving.

It’s the Vision Next 100’s ‘Boost’ mode that shows how BMW believes it could retain its reputation for driving pleasure in the age of the autonomous car. The concept’s entire windscreen is a kind of gigantic head-up display. BMW’s vision is that this could be used to show the driver the best line around a corner, as well as warning of road hazards.

“Our aim is to turn every driver into a better driver,” van Hooydonk said. “We will give the driver an intelligent co-pilot.”

But it seems the BMW boss isn’t convinced that internal combustion has the same life expectancy as the steering wheel. “There is no alternative to e-mobility,” Kruger told a journalist who asked if BMW was satisfied with sales of the i3 electric car. “E-mobility is a marathon, not a sprint.”