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Written by Paul Horrell
BMW is getting cracking with development of its next i car. "i Next", BMW people are helpfully calling it. Launch is planned for five years from now, in 2021.It"ll be somewhere between the i3 and i8 in price, and will probably get a number because BMW has registered as trademarks all the i numbers between 3 and 8. It"ll be an all-electric saloon about 5-series size. Critically, it"ll use a step-change batteries.At the launch of the Mini and Rolls-Royce centenary vision cars, BMW"s sales and Marketing chief Ian Robertson announced, "The i Next will be our new spearhead for innovation and technology."He went on: "Planned for 2021, it will offer autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight design, a totally new interior. And ultimately it will bring the next generation of electro-mobility to the road."Fascinating but a bit non-specific. So in a quiet moment Top Gear pushed him for more. He stressed again that the i project isn"t just about battery cars, but also lightweight construction. "The 7-series is 200kg lighter than the previous one, and that wouldn"t have been possible without the i3 and i8." So we can assume lots of carbon fibre and aluminium."The i Next will carry the next steps in autonomous driving. Maybe not fully at first, but in most respects," he told us.He also said it will "have our next design steps". Sources say it takes inspiration from the looks of the amazing, ultra-low-drag, shape-shifting BMW Vision Next 100 (pictured above).That Vision car also embodies the results of BMW"s research into driver interfaces and controls for the autonomous age. It uses the whole windscreen as an augmented-reality display. It can superimpose the ideal cornering line on the road, and images of obscured hazards (recognised by vehicle-to-vehicle comms) in the direction from which they"ll appear. You will "become the ultimate driver", said Robertson.
Date written: 18 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3893
BMW is getting cracking with development of its next i car. "i Next", BMW people are helpfully calling it. Launch is planned for five years from now, in 2021.It"ll be somewhere between the i3 and i8 in price, and will probably get a number because BMW has registered as trademarks all the i numbers between 3 and 8. It"ll be an all-electric saloon about 5-series size. Critically, it"ll use a step-change batteries.At the launch of the Mini and Rolls-Royce centenary vision cars, BMW"s sales and Marketing chief Ian Robertson announced, "The i Next will be our new spearhead for innovation and technology."He went on: "Planned for 2021, it will offer autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight design, a totally new interior. And ultimately it will bring the next generation of electro-mobility to the road."Fascinating but a bit non-specific. So in a quiet moment Top Gear pushed him for more. He stressed again that the i project isn"t just about battery cars, but also lightweight construction. "The 7-series is 200kg lighter than the previous one, and that wouldn"t have been possible without the i3 and i8." So we can assume lots of carbon fibre and aluminium."The i Next will carry the next steps in autonomous driving. Maybe not fully at first, but in most respects," he told us.He also said it will "have our next design steps". Sources say it takes inspiration from the looks of the amazing, ultra-low-drag, shape-shifting BMW Vision Next 100 (pictured above).That Vision car also embodies the results of BMW"s research into driver interfaces and controls for the autonomous age. It uses the whole windscreen as an augmented-reality display. It can superimpose the ideal cornering line on the road, and images of obscured hazards (recognised by vehicle-to-vehicle comms) in the direction from which they"ll appear. You will "become the ultimate driver", said Robertson.
Date written: 18 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3893
