There's been another BMW parked on the campus lately, hidden from view behind sets of secure doors. This one's covered in camouflage, because the future of the company is riding on it.
The sport utility vehicle, called the iX3, will be the first of 40 new or updated models that share slick software, high-performance computers and radically different design cues. Crucially, for an industry that's been turned on its head by fast-moving Chinese manufacturers leaving even Tesla in the dust, BMW is staging a swift roll-out. Within roughly two years of customers starting to take delivery of the first iX3s, technology within this new EV will be in all of the company's vehicles.
"We're 109 years old, and it's by far the biggest single investment into one architecture we've ever done," CEO Oliver Zipse said in an interview.
There are more than a few spanners in the works for the global car sector at the moment. US President Donald Trump's tariffs are forcing companies to rethink supply routes for both components and finished vehicles. China's BYD and Xiaomi are taking the world's largest market by storm with desirable features and affordable prices. The transition to EVs is in flux virtually everywhere.
Zipse, a BMW lifer, took over as CEO in 2019, just as Tesla was beginning to navigate its way out of what Elon Musk described as production hell. When Bloomberg asked 5 000 early Model 3 owners that year what cars used to be in their driveway, the survey found an alarming number of BMW deserters.