Before I met BMW’s iVision Dee at a pre-press event in Germany – prior to the public unveiling at CES in Las Vegas last week – I had never seen a car blush, let alone make one. to me blush. But then the electric BMW began to change colors and facial expressions, speaking to me in intimate detail, splashing a digital avatar of my face onto the side window, and filling the windshield with HUD projections worth seeing. Minority report.

The “D” in this radical concept sedan stands for Digital Emotional Experience. This includes the sultry-voiced virtual assistant of the same name. 240 laser-cut Kindle-style e-ink panels allow the BMW to instantly transform into one of 32 exterior colors. Excited with a low current of 15 volts and less than 100 milliamps, the microencapsulated particles of the panels create a movable e-paper display. Feeling hot pink today? Take action. And don’t worry about ringing electrical driving: the chameleon material consumes its rated energy and only when it changes color to a different shade.

Instead of the overworked double kidney grilles that have caused controversy on some recent Bimmers, the iVision face is a blank canvas for a variety of shapes or animations. iVision can track a person’s approach to communication with “physical” icons that mimic human expressions such as joy or surprise. Imagine Pixar’s anthropomorphic Cars come to life, minus the voracious V-8 beloved by Lightning McQueen.

This illustration of the interior of the BMW iVision Dee shows just how much it relies on voice assistant and head-up display (HUD) output to the driver. bmw

Inside, the BMW is just as bold. This beautifully minimalist sedan eschews the ever-growing screens of Mercedes, Tesla and other models. Instead, toggling the “mixed reality slider” fills larger and larger portions of the windshield with driver information, navigation overlays, and other AR displays. Move the slider to the fifth level and the entire windshield will turn into a virtual world. BMW sees the opportunity in educational simulations or games that allow people to drive real cars in an incredibly immersive digital world. Or recline your seats and watch Avatar continuation. Once on the move, BMW chairman Oliver Zipse says the company’s HUDs are much better than screens at keeping one’s eyes on the road.

Kai Langer, head of BMW iDesign, suggests that eliminating modern screens could allow BMW to reserve space on the dashboard for genuine luxury and expensive materials, rather than the unsightly cave-sized screens that are the antithesis of high design.

However, beneath the color-changing surface and quirky features lies a deadly vehicle whose technology will be critical to achieving BMW’s goal of producing 50 percent of the world’s electric vehicles by 2030. the long-awaited Neue Klasse platform. This sophisticated new architecture should arrive in 2025, likely starting with electrified versions of the blue-chip 3-Series sedan and small crossover SUV.

Modern electric BMWs are hard at work to overcome a range of 480 kilometers (300 miles). BMW says its Neue Klasse models will travel about 30 percent farther, providing a reach of 640 km (400 miles). First, BMW is swapping out its familiar prismatic batteries for large-format cylindrical cells, which Tesla is looking to implement in its “4680” cells. (These cells are named for their 46mm x 80mm dimensions.) The sixth-generation BMW batteries for electric vehicles are even taller and contain more battery active material in the sizes ‘4690’ and ‘46120’. They will be built in tandem with China’s CATL and other battery manufacturing partners. BMW battery engineers claim that the cells contain 10% more active material than prismatic cells, and the energy density is increased by 20%. Advanced Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) chemistry reduces costly, ethically suspect cathode cobalt by 50 percent. Anodes reduce the graphite content by 20 percent. With 40 percent of the cost of every BMW electric vehicle coming from batteries, the new cells should reduce the cost of BMW batteries by 50 percent at the packaging level. On the environmental front, BMW claims that the batteries will reduce CO2 emissions over their lifetime.₂ emissions by 60 percent.

BMW’s sixth-generation electric vehicle batteries are moving from rectangular-shaped prismatic cells (left) to cylindrical cells (right), which the company says improves energy density by 20 percent and reduces lifetime carbon emissions by 60 percent. bmw

Eager drivers and passengers will appreciate the robust 800-volt architecture – on par with Porsche, Hyundai, Kia and Lucid models – that can charge over 200 kilowatts, at least 30 percent faster than current models. The advanced package-to-open-case design uses the entire package as a structural member, saving more space and weight.

Package sizes will range from 75 kWh to a whopping 150 kWh, with engines ranging from 268 to a dizzying 1,341 horsepower, enough to challenge any Tesla Model S Plaid or Lucid Air. Compared to more volatile prismatic cells, these thermally shielded cylindrical cells can be individually controlled and insulated to avoid thermal runaway. Unlike current BMWs, the modular design does not require the package to be removed to access the electronic controls; executives cite these controls as the main culprit in servicing BMW electric vehicles. In line with the global trend, the Neue Klasse design will also support low-cost, ultra-strong LFP (for “lithium iron phosphate”) batteries for more affordable BMW Group models.

While Tesla continues to struggle to get its large-format elements into production, BMW is confident it can scale to the showroom floor. The pilot plant in Parsdorf, Germany, is due to start production in the first quarter of 2023.

The company is also promising a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions across the vehicle’s life cycle, including at battery plants that aim for 100 percent carbon-neutral production powered by renewable local electricity. BMW’s ambitious plans include six new cylindrical cell battery plants worldwide, two each in North America, Europe and China, and at least 120 GWh of new capacity. An $810 million battery plant will appear in South Carolina in partnership with Japan’s Envision AESC. BMW is designing this 30 gigawatt plant to be completely carbon-free. The batteries will then power electric vehicles from the nearby Spartanburg plant, which is the largest in BMW’s global empire. BMW envisions Spartanburg launching half a dozen new electric vehicle models by 2030 — a virtual competitive necessity thanks to President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill that limits consumer and automaker tax credits to cars, batteries, and even battery materials sourced from America or its free trade. partners.