Perhaps the BMW 3 Series and 6 Series Gran Turismo models took niches just a smidge too far. For anyone still yearning for one of the quirky sedan/coupe/hatchback mashups, time is running short.

BMW noted in its full-range 2020 model year update last week that the 3 Series GT and 6 Series GT will not return. Ditto for the 6 Series Gran Coupe, which is basically a 6 Series with two extra doors. The end of the 6 Series variants comes as no surprise as the 8 Series takes over flagship duties. The 8 Series range just added its own Gran Coupe model, too.

The German automaker telegraphed its intentions this past March when it noted the 3 Series GT would not receive a replacement. Instead, BMW says it wants to put its resources into electric vehicles and electrified cars. The market also continues to prefer utility vehicles such as SUVs, of which BMW offers plenty.

Looking at the company's breadwinner models, the X3, X4, X5 and X6 are all slated to enter production this month before they start trickling into dealers across the US. Each SUV received a thorough refresh with design changes. Each also costs at least $500 more than the 2019 model each replaces. On the smaller SUV side, a refreshed 2020 X1 is coming next month, and the 2020 X2 entered production in July.

Within BMW's passenger car portfolio, changes are rather minor. The 2020 3 Series gains a new optional Premium Package and the price for the Live Cockpit Professional is now $1,100 less expensive. The 4 Series gains a more robust suite of standard active safety features, and the 7 Series soldiers on with its massive grille and controversial new looks. We regret to inform BMW 5 Series shoppers that a CD player is no longer available.

Moving forward, we're going to see plenty of new electric cars and a greater focus on autonomous-driving technologies. BMW has partnered with rival Daimler to Level 3 and Level 4 self-driving car research. The company has also promised its flagship electric SUV, the iNext, will include Level 3 self-driving abilities. On the SAE scale of autonomy, that's one level shy of keeping the car from handing back control should something go awry.

With every new generation of customers, BMW is reshaping their identity. This thought process started over 100 years ago and it continues in 2020 with a new chapter in their book. In a recent call with Jens Thiemer, Senior Vice President BMW Customer Brand, we learned about some exciting changes in the identify of the Bavarian brand.

For starters, the iconic BMW roundel gets a new and fresh design. According to Thiemer, BMW has to adapt to a new customer base, a younger generation of buyers who are digitally natives.

“The new logo and brand design symbolizes the importance and relevance of the brand for mobility and the joy of driving in the future,” Thiemer told us.

The new BMW logo retains the same shape, but its within this shape that the design takes a new approach. The middle still has the blue and white colors of the Bavarian state. The font has also been shaped up differently. The outer ring now has a flat design in white, while some gradients fill the rest of the logo.

Furthermore, Thiemer says that since “BMW is becoming a relationship brand”, the new logo will invite customers to rediscover the brand with its history and products.

With the visual and identity changes, BMW wants to be perceived even more openly and more accessible. It also marks the start of the electric revolution at BMW, alongside the BMW Concept i4 electric car.

The company’s sub-brands – BMW i and BMW M – are also getting their own new logos. The ///M badge is now flat, a 2D interpretation of “The Most Powerful Letter In The World”.

The i sub-brand continues down the same path with a refreshed look which will be part of the future electric and plug-in hybrid family.

So far, no plans to have the new logo on cars. It mainly is for communication purposes (online and offline).
To highlight the evolution of their roundel/logo, BMW published a new graphic which remind us of the changes in the last decade.

The widely-circulated belief that an electric powertrain doesn't need to be cooled is completely false. What's accurate is that an electric car doesn't always need a grille on its front end, but BMW told Autoblog that's not an excuse to move away from the twin kidneys that have characterized nearly all of its models since the 1930s.

Domagoj Dukec, the soft-spoken head of BMW's design department, pointed out the decades-old twin-kidney grille is the biggest differentiator between the Munich-based firm and rivals from Germany and abroad. It's more than a cooling tool; it establishes the car's identity. It's here to stay regardless of whether his team draws an electric sedan or one powered by a gasoline-burning straight-six. Going electric might force stylists to prioritize form over function, but an emphasis on design is what spawned this styling cue nearly nine decades ago.

"If you go really back in time to when the kidney started, there was a big difference between it and the classic grilles of other manufacturers. Look at the grille of a Rolls-Royce, for example. It was always the same shape as the radiator behind it. For BMW, however, it was always the face of the car, and it wasn't shaped like the radiator. The 328 had vertical openings. Splitting the grille in the middle was not the most efficient way to do it, but it was an aesthetic solution," he said, referencing a roadster manufactured between 1936 and 1940.




The firm's range will grow in the 2020s with the addition of electric models, like the i4 (pictured), but Dukec doesn't see the need to give each one a twin-kidney grille as a constraint. He instead instructs his team to tweak the feature's shape and dimensions to ensure the end product suits each car's character well. This strategy has spawned some of BMW's most polarizing designs, like the face-lifted 7 Series, but it has worked as intended.

BMW is split into three pillars: M, i, and the core brand. This balanced structure could easily enable stylists to create three distinct design identities to differentiate them, but that's not the order of the day in 2020.

"We no longer see i on one side, positioned as the angel on the left shoulder, and M on the right shoulder as BMW's devil. This doesn't work anymore," he said. "We don't want to make three parallel universes where we have three brands with different characters. We want to strengthen BMW as a brand with the help of two sub-brands which have two different roles. M4, i4, and 4 customers have one thing in common: They love BMW."

We'll need to wait a little bit longer to find out what this strategy looks like on the road or in one of the company's showrooms. The next-generation 4 Series is expected to break cover before the end of 2020, the M4 based on it should make its debut in 2021, and the production version of the i4 concept will enter production in 2022.

In the meantime, Dukec had a message for those who deprecate the size of BMW's recent grilles.

"In the past, some people were actually complaining that we weren't as self-confident as other brands, and no one complains about them when they have a grille that stretches [all the way] from left to right. Everybody who loves BMW will get used to it. People who are complaining are often not customers."

FRANKFURT — BMW announced its intentions to offer a fully electric 5 Series, 7 Series and X1 as part of a sweeping product overhaul unveiled on Monday as the German carmaker seeks to lower vehicle emissions during production and on the road.

All three of those vehicles will be offered in an array of powertrain choices: full electric, plug-in hybrid and gas-only with a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. Europe will also get diesels, but we don't expect those to make it to the U.S.

"In ten years, the goal is to have a total of more than seven million electrified BMW Group vehicles on the roads – around two thirds of them with a fully-electric drivetrain," the carmaker said on Monday.

Carmakers have been pushing electric cars ever since European lawmakers in December 2018 ordered a cut in carbon dioxide emissions from cars by 37.5% by 2030 compared with 2021 levels. This will come after a 40% emissions cut between 2007 and 2021.

Starting next year, BMW said it will offer five fully-electric cars: the BMW i3, the MINI Cooper SE, the BMW iX3, the BMW iNEXT and the BMW i4. In total, BMW plans to have 25 electrified models on the roads by 2023, half of them fully electric.

As for the fully electric 5 Series, Chief Executive Oliver Zipse declined to give a launch date. There's no hard launch date for the electric X1 or 7 Series either, but BMW said the electric 7 Series will arrive when the next-gen 7 Series does.

BMW said its management remuneration will be more closely aligned with compliance to climate targets and that carbon emissions from production and sites would be lowered by 80% per vehicle.