Design Essay: BMW i – Setting the industry agenda for the next decade

Many have already dismissed BMW i as a radical experiment too far ahead of its time, but looking beyond the glossy carbon fiber facade reveals three ways it will change the automotive landscape during the next decade:

Despite Tesla, Nissan, GM, Renault and Toyota all operating in the EV space, global sales in 2012 totaled just 54,000. Many put this down to high-cost and range anxiety, but another key factor is nearly always overlooked. EVs have an image problem, with many viewing them as something for worthy consumers who like to project they care about the planet. The fact that most are styled like weird kitchen appliances also doesn't help much either. The result is limited appeal and slow growth.

With i, BMW have focused on a new type of consumer – wealthy, 30-40 something, tech-savvy, style driven, urban dwellers. They're a small but highly influential group who like the idea of owning an EV, but dislike the image of current offerings. Instead, they want something more progressive, high-tech and premium – something i delivers at many levels. The result is a new meaning in the EV category – a meaning that is cool(er), more aspirational and very different to anything that has gone before.

The highly influential target will not only grow sales, they will also help further raise the image of EVs. Some competitors will continue along the same path, while others will respond by aping the new meaning or by creating their own new meaning. Some will likely spend billions creating new sub-brands rather than use the current approach of green-washing existing products (e.g. Audi's E-Tron). The result will be a re-definition of the EV category. Sure, the history books will always show it was Toyota who created the modern day green car, but in reality, most consumers won't know, or care, instead choosing to say that it was BMW i which defined the category.

To use a non-automotive analogy, despite the fact that Apple's iPhone was11 years behind Nokia's Communicator and 4 years behind RIM's BlackBerry, it is still seen as the definitive smartphone. One question I'm asking is, who will be the Nokia or RIM of the car world? Tesla should be very worried.

In ‘BMW i3 sales ‘impossible to predict' (Auto Express, November 2012), Harald Kruger, Member of the board, BMW Group, said ‘We think electric vehicles need to be sexy and very emotional. I won't pass judgment on any rivals, but the i3 Coupe especially has that, and that's why we'll succeed.'

Ben Lane, managing editor of the website nextgreencar.com believes that, ‘This will change the image of the electric car.'

Until now, the use of carbon fiber (CFRP) on cars has been limited to supercars and concepts due to the high-cost. With BMWi, the brand's R&D teams partnered with a carbon specialist to pioneer a technique that means it can now be mass-produced.

At $200-300m for the factories alone, the technique has not come cheap, but there are many benefits. Not only is it super-light (saving 300kg to offset the weight of the battery) and robust enough for crash impact, it also allows designers a level of creative freedom previously unseen – something Benoit Jacob head of BMW i design and his team have leveraged with the thin, organic layered surfaces and detailing that are integral to the design language. With its roots in product design and architecture, this organic aesthetic is not exactly new, but it certainly taps into the current zeitgeist and is already helping reinforce BMW as the industry design leader.

While competitors would also like to pick up on this new aesthetic, its influence in the short-term will be restricted to concept cars and super-cars like the McLaren P1, Kia Provo and Pininfarina Sergio at the recent Geneva show. The reason? Like the innovative metal pressing techniques used in Flame Surfacing, BMW have developed intellectual property in the field of CFRP production.

"Leveraging resources is about the only way to get a USP up and running on your side early before the other guys; in BMW a critical resource was their fantastic metal stamping skills which allowed us to do more complicated shapes before anyone else," Chris Bangle said in Haydn Shaughnessy's article, ‘Chris Bangle on Innovation,' in Innovation Management (April 2011).

By Richard Green