BMW found a creative way to showcase its expertise in electrification. Its i division teamed up with its Designworks studio and intrepid stuntman Peter Salzmann to develop, build and test an electric wingsuit.

Designing the device, which the German carmaker calls simply Electrified Wingsuit, took about three years. It consists of two main parts: a suit with wing-like pieces of fabric reminiscent of a flying squirrel's fur-covered skin membranes, and a compact electric drive unit that houses a pair of carbon propellers capable of spinning at 25,000 rpm. They deliver a total output of 15 kilowatts (roughly 20 horsepower) for as long as five minutes.

BMW notes the drive unit was extensively tested in the same wind tunnel it uses to shape its cars in Munich, Germany. It tips the scale at approximately 26 pounds thanks to the use of carbon fiber and aluminum.






Wingsuit flying has been around for decades. Thirty-three-year-old Franz Reichelt notably died in 1912 while trying to test an early prototype by jumping off the Eiffel Tower, but adding electrification to the equation lets users reach action movie speeds of up to 186 mph. It also allows for more constant gliding over much longer distances. It gives the power of flight to whoever is brave enough to strap in; it's like a jet pack without the jet fuel.

Salzmann tested the Electrified Wingsuit by jumping out of a helicopter hovering about 9,900 feet over the Austrian Alps, and BMW caught his descent on camera. He lived to tell the tale, he landed safely by deploying his parachute at the end of a long, roller coaster-like glide, and he's looking forward to further developing this technology.

Don't expect to see one displayed next to a 3 Series at a BMW dealer, however. Autoblog learned from a company spokesperson that there are no plans to bring the Electrified Wingsuit to the public.

FRANKFURT — BMW on Wednesday said it will retool its German factories to build electric cars and components and shift manufacturing of combustion engines to plants in Austria and England as part of a broader shift toward low-emission cars.

Factories across the globe are clamoring for investment into next-generation cars as electric vehicles gain traction with consumers and as governments hasten the demise of the combustion engine.
ADVERTISEMENTGermany on Wednesday unveiled a 3-billion-euro ($3.5 billion) scheme to promote low-emission cars, and Britain said it will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2030.

"By the end of 2022 all our German factories will make at least one fully electric car," Milan Nedeljkovic, BMW's board member responsible for production said in a statement on Wednesday.

BMW's Munich plant, which currently makes four-, six-, eight- and 12-cylinder combustion engines, will be retooled with a 400 million euro investment until 2026, to make next-generation electric vehicles, the carmaker said.

BMW said production of eight- and 12-cylinder engines will move from Munich to Hams Hall in England, and other engines will be made in Steyr, in Austria.

Bavaria, where BMW is based, will receive the lion's share of the investments, the carmaker said. The BMW i4 electric car will be built in Munich, a fully electric version of the 5-series and 7-series and the recently revealed iX will be made in Dingolfing and an electric X1 will be made in Regensburg.

BMW's said the number of staff at its Dingolfing factory making electric car powertrains, will double, to 2,000 workers.

BMW's plant in Leipzig, Germany, will start manufacturing the Mini Countryman and the Regensburg and Leipzig plants are being prepared to make battery modules, the company said.

BMW will improve its cost structure by 500 million euros by the end of the year, the company also said.

BMW enthusiasts certainly know what generation of cars Neue Klasse refers to, but soon the name will stand for an entirely new chapter of the marque's history. The Munich-based automaker laid out a new three-part strategy for the future centered on a redefined IT and software architecture, high-performance electric batteries and drivetrains, and also a new focus on sustainability throughout the each vehicle's life cycle. A new vehicle architecture will embody these three strands as the automaker turns to electrification and digitalization, without losing BMW's familiar driving character.

"The BMW Group is never satisfied with what it has achieved so far – that's what sets it apart from the rest of the field. This spirit will characterize the Neue Klasse: high tech on four wheels for customers intent on experiencing in just five years' time how mobility will feel in 2030," said Oliver Zipse, BMW AG's Chairman of the Board of Management.

What will the Neue Klasse generation of vehicles offer?

When it comes to digitalization, the first part of this strategy will arrive later this year with BMW's Operating System 8, promised to be most powerful processing system the brand has ever fielded. The BMW iX will be the first vehicle with this system on board, but it will quickly spread to other vehicles, offering the eighth generation of iDrive with over-the-air updates. The automaker says by the end of this year it will have the largest fleet of vehicles on the road with the capability to install or upgrade existing functions via OTA updates.

As for electrification, BMW plans to have a dozen battery-electric models on the road by 2023, covering about 90 of segments it currently offers. Later this year the BMW iX and i4 will join the i3, Mini Cooper SE and BMW iX3 on the road, with battery-electric versions of the X1 and the 5-Series scheduled to follow.

"The launch of the BMW iX and the BMW i4 will signalize the start of our technology offensive in 2021: these two all-electric vehicles will set the benchmark for BEVs going forward," Zipse noted.

The automaker will also field an 7-Series EV in the near future, while Mini gains a battery-electric successor to the Mini Countryman. In total, BMW plans to have electric models spanning several brands in 9 out of 10 segments in which it fields vehicles.

"We are consciously adopting a broad approach with our all-electric offering rather than staying niche," Zipse added.

BMW also plans to use highly scalable modules for powertrains and platforms able to underpin many different segments of Neue Klasse vehicles. The models themselves are promised to feature aerodynamic designs but more spacious interiors than today's lineup, signaling gains in usable space as a result of battery-electric powertrains. The Neue Klasse powertrains will be able to be used for volume models and high-performance models alike, with BMW planning to blur this line with the adoption of new powertrains. And they will also feature advanced driver assistance systems.

The automaker also intends to focus on recyclable materials in cars, adopting an approach it calls "secondary first," prioritizing secondary materials wherever availability and quality factors allow.

"We are intent on ensuring that the 'greenest' electric car on the market is made by BMW," Zipse added.

When it comes to just when we're going to see radical results of this new strategy on the road, BMW says that by 2030 battery-electric models will account for at least 50 percent of its global deliveries based on current market expectations, and that all model series will include fully electric vehicles as options. BMW expects the number of battery-electric vehicles in the BMW Group to grown 20% annually between 2025 and 2030.

"By that stage, across the entire product portfolio, all market segments in which the BMW Group operates will include at least one fully electric model," the automaker says. "In fact, a number of segments may well be served exclusively by fully electric models. Accordingly, the BMW Group will also be capable of providing a significantly higher market share of fully electric vehicles, assuming demand develops accordingly. The BMW Group expects to have around ten million fully electric vehicles on roads worldwide over the next ten years or so."

Overall, BMW's strategy envisions a much bigger role for internal combustion engines after 2030 than several other automakers' do, while also leaving room for hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The company projects at least 50% of its global deliveries being electric vehicles by that date, likely taking into account numerous overseas markets where EV adoption is barely a blip on the radar. The automaker's goal of using what it calls "highly scalable modules" is in line with the expectations of several other automakers, needing just a few platforms to underpin a wide variety of vehicles, because quite a few models will feature skateboard platforms of different lengths, with different suspensions. The rapidly approaching adoption of such flexible platforms for battery-electric vehicles is already a trend, even though we're only seeing the tip of this iceberg when it comes to BMW.

"The BMW Group has ambitious plans for 2021. We have started the new year with strong momentum and are aiming to return to pre-crisis levels as swiftly as possible – and go even further," Zipse said.

BMW’s new EVs, the iX crossover and i4 four-door coupe, will make their North American debuts on Tuesday, June 1, at 1:00 p.m. PST and 6:00 p.m. PST. The cars are being unveiled at a new facility called [SPACE] by BMW, what the company calls an “immersive BMW brand experience” at The Grove in Los Angeles. After the unveiling the facility will open to the public from Friday, June 4, through November 30 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST daily.

BMW calls the iX its technology flagship, “bringing together the latest developments in the fields of electrification, connectivity, design, and services.” The company says range should be around 300 miles, and the crossover should hit 62 mph in less than 5.0 seconds. MSRP is expected to be in the mid $80,000 range and will be announced, along with all the specs, on June 1.

The BMW i4 EV four-door coupe arrives here early next year. The company says it should hit a range around 300 miles and 62 mph in about 4 seconds.

The automaker says [SPACE] is a two-story gallery-inspired brand experience with displays from BMW, BMW M, BMW i, Mini, and BMW Motorrad. LA artist Spencer Mar Guilbert collaborated on the interior design. BMW says he used both the natural world and street art for inspiration.

Hinting that BMW might launch more EVs using these types of immersrive displays, Uwe Dreher, BMW of North America’s marketing VP, said “the debuts of the BMW iX and i4 are only the beginning. We wanted to do something special to introduce these new vehicles, which is why we’ve created a brand platform in one of the most important electric vehicle markets in the world.
“But [SPACE] by BMW will go beyond just vehicle debuts and displays,” he added. “We will have a full schedule of programming and events which will create opportunities to engage and connect with consumers.”

The idea behind [SPACE] to be open over the course of the next six months is to “generate awareness and build excitement for BMW’s electric future,” the company said. BMW said the venue will host different consumer and stakeholder events with “collaborations in art, music, and lifestyle, and partnership activations.” An example of the latter is a collaboration with Marvel and its upcoming films, Black Widow and Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.

The i4 should hit 62 mph in around four seconds. BMWOf course, there will also be opportunities to test drive many of BMW’s plug-in hybrids.

BMW’s first purpose-built EV, i3, was launched in 2013, and then came the hybrid-electric BMW i8 coupe in 2014. At the moment BMW offers plug-in hybrid versions of the 3-Series, 5-Series, 7-Series, X3, and X5. We’ll see the fifth-generation of BMW’s electric drivetrain in the iX and i4.

Mini is expected to go all-electric by 2030. It offers the Mini Cooper SE EV and Mini Cooper Countryman SE plug-in hybrid.

BMW said it expects its global EV sales to rise 20 percent annually between 2025 and 2030. The company also said that by 2030 it expects EVs to account for “at least 50 percent of the BMW Group’s deliveries to customers.”

The iX and i4 are also the first two vehicles in the lineup with iDrive 8, the newest iteration of the vehicle interface. It’s “designed to deliver a more natural interactive and holistic user experience between the driver and their BMW,” the company said.

According to BMW, it aspires to “lead the way in terms of sustainability.” It says it has set “clear decarbonization targets between now and the year 2030 – for the first time across the entire life cycle of the products – including the supply chain, the production process and right up to the end-of-life phase. In every aspect of the Group’s activities, carbon emissions per vehicle are to be significantly reduced by at least one third compared to 2019.”

BMW says as an example that the electricity used to produce the iX in Dingolfing and the i4 in Munich is generated via hydroelectric plants in Bavaria. “The use of renewable green electricity to produce the battery cells, combined with the increased use of secondary materials, reduces carbon emissions in the BMW iX supply chain by 17 percent compared to the same vehicle produced without these initiatives,” the company said.

In addition BMW says it also cutting its use of critical raw materials. It has “reduced the amount of cobalt in the cathode material for the current fifth-generation battery cells to less than ten percent and increased the amount of secondary nickel it uses by up to 50 percent.”

CES 2022 has kicked off and BMW has used an all-electric iX to debut an innovative paint scheme that changes colors.

In the lead-up to the show, the German car manufacturer confirmed that it would demonstrate “a technology that changes the exterior color of a vehicle with the touch of a button.” No other details about the paint have been released by BMW at this stage but a video has been uploaded by Twitter user ‘Out of Spec Studios’ that shows it in action.

The clip starts off by showing the iX bathed in a simple shade of dark grey but all of a sudden, it changes to white, seemingly after a man standing next to the SUV activated the system. The paint then begins to transition from grey to white. It is so bizarre that you could be fooled into thinking that this video was completely fake and simply the work of CGI.

Car manufacturers and technology companies routinely debut innovative technologies and features at CES and while many of them hit the market, many don’t. It is unclear if BMW has any intention of offering its customers the option of color-changing paint like this or if it has been developed exclusively as a technical showcase.

The individual who uploaded this video to Twitter claims that the paint is very temperature sensitive and that BMW has brought along a backup vehicle if the iX featured gets either too hot or too cold.