For over a century, the lawns of the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este on Lake Como have hosted some of the rarest classic cars in existence. The hotel’s Concorso d'Eleganza traces its roots back to 1929, when it began as a showcase for coachbuilders – the carrozzerie – on the shores of Lake Como.

At its peak, more than 100 entries – from Pininfarina to Ghia, Touring, Castagna and Stabilimenti Farina – would jostle for attention, as sports cars designed like spaceships and streamlined saloons were paraded on the lawns between Villa d’Este and the green-blue water of Lake Como.

Today, the BMW Group-sponsored Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este is really no different; it celebrates some of the greatest one-offs of the past century while serving as a platform for BMW to rip the covers off its latest concepts and creations. Wallpaper* was there to explore the 2026 edition (15-17 May).

‘The event has been going for over 100 years now, and has always been about these fantastic one-off classic cars that I'm always amazed by,’ says BMW Group's design director Adrian van Hooydonk. ‘For the last ten to 15 years, we've been trying to add to it in the form of concept vehicles. It was quite daunting at first, because you meet the people that collect these cars and know their cars, all of them analogue, all of them hand-built, and then we come in with something fancy and new, but over the years, people have come to appreciate that.’

From 2019, Como gained another car event in the shape of Fuoriconcorso. Set in the steep surroundings of the 17th-century Villa del Grumello, this year’s Fuoriconcorso celebrated German engineering under the banner ‘KraftMeister’. A stark contrast from the oh-so-Italian setting and the themes of past years.

Where the Villa d’Este Concorso trades on coachbuilt elegance, Fuoriconcorso leans more into automotive obscurities, youngtimers and cult classics. Think restomods and 1990s tuner cars, alongside behemoths like the 700-hp, twin-turbo V12 Mercedes-Maybach Exelero from 2005 and the 1970 psychedelic Porsche 917-043 'Hippie Car'.

With world premieres from Brabus, Alpina, Bizzarrini and Kimera Automobili, the two shows are the main pillars of Como Car Week; a series of events that rivals Monterey as the most compelling date on the global concours calendar.

The rebirth of Alpina

‘This year is quite special, because [what we’re showing is] not just a concept car, it is the relaunch of the BMW Alpina brand,’ says van Hooydonk. The weekend’s headline act came fresh from van Hooydonk’s studio, where the BMW design team had been busily developing the first glimpse of what lies in store for the Alpina name, which was brought under BMW control in early 2026.

Called the Vision BMW Alpina, the sleek, 5.2m-long car leads with an exaggerated, forward-leaning shark-nose, referencing the 1978 Alpina E24 B7. Power comes from a non-hybrid V8, and the 20-spoke wheels anchor it to Alpina’s spiritual home of Buchloe.

But the four-seat coupé isn't a production model and likely never will be. The first BMW-made Alpina to make it to market will be a 7-series super saloon, complete with a V8 at its heart. ‘We are not going to flood the market with Alpina products,’ assures van Hooydonk. ‘We’re going to take a careful approach, we’re going to have some patience and start one by one, and then build it slowly.’

With the BMW Group’s latest marque positioned to fill the rather large ‘white space’ between the most expensive BMW and fellow group marque Rolls-Royce, Alpina ‘was and is about quiet luxury’, van Hooydonk tells me on a terrace overlooking the sparkling water. The refined BMWs ‘[were] much faster than the standard product, but not ostentatious’, cars, in which ‘you could go almost undercover’. You can read more about the Vision BMW Alpina here.

BMWAlpina.com, @BMWAlpina.official

The world premieres

With the classics rooting most of the two events in the past, a handful of world premieres this year hinted at what the future holds for highly bespoke, limited-run supercars. Kimera Automobili launched its bonkers V8 Koenigsegg-powered K-39, an Italian hypercar that references both the 1981 Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Group 5 racing car and the Lancia 037 Group B rally car, only this is no restomod. The K-39 is Kimera’s first car built from the ground up, which includes a carbon-fibre monocoque, a V8 engine, a manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive.

At Fuoriconcorso, tuning house Brabus unveiled the Bodo, a long, sweeping million-euro, grand tourer with 1,000hp twin-turbo V12 ‘hyper-GT’ named for late founder Bodo Buschmann. Beneath its all-carbon body lie the reworked bones of a twin-turbo V12 Aston Martin Vanquish, with styling seemingly referencing the Mercedes-Maybach Vision 6 concept car from 2016.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bizzarrini marked the centenary of founder Giotto Bizzarrini's birth with the Centenario Edition: a gloss-black, gold-wheeled special edition of its 5300 GT Corsa Revival. The car will be the last of the ‘reborn’ 5300 GTs, with the company confirming that it will soon launch an all-new model.

The winners

Of the two Como events, Fuoriconcorso is an unjudged, curated show with no official winner, whereas the Concorso d'Eleganza remains the true battleground, where the finest classic cars come to be judged. In 2026, more than 50 cars competed across classes curated by period and coachbuilder.

This year’s top honour was awarded to a 1937 BMW 328 ‘Bügelfalte’ – a one-off racing roadster built at the Munich plant, named for the distinctive metal edging on its front wings. Its owner, Stefano Martinoli of Italy, took home an A Lange & Söhne 1815 Chronograph in 18ct white gold, the crest of the Concorso hand-engraved on the case back.

When it came to the public vote, it was a 1963 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster that won the most hearts. Finished in white with a contrasting black hardtop, the roadster came complete with vintage luggage, skis and snow chains on its rear wheels.

ConcorsodEleganzaVilladEste.com, @ConcorsodEleganza_vde

To give you some indication of the number of changes wrought upon the new iteration of BMW’s flagship 7 Series, the press release runs to 8,000 words. Distilling all this innovation into a snappy news story will be a challenge, but here goes. In short, BMW describe this as the ‘most extensive BMW Group model update ever’.

Inside and out, the 7 Series has been transformed, no doubt mindful of the recent updates announced for its long-term revival, the Mercedes S-Class, as well as the ever-louder clamour of Chinese competitors.

You’ll remember the current generation (G70) 7 Series. As the all-electric BMW i7, it was the car that set a new for rear-seat entertainment with the introduction of the 31.3in Theatre Screen that folded down from the roof and also served as a useful division between driver/employee and owner. It was feature that was swiftly imitated (and bested) by several premium Chinese brands.

Not to be outdone, the rear screen has now been upgraded to 8K resolution with the addition of Dolby Atmos (and integrated video conferencing, should you desire to take such horrors on the road). BMW has also thrown in a passenger side display screen for good measure – the company’s first (although it is way behind the trend here).

Photographed here at the headquarters of the BEEAH Group in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, self-evidently designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, there’s a strong contrast between the BMW’s stoic upright simplicity and ZHA’s fluid concrete gymnastics. Nevertheless, the new 7 has been given a fairly comprehensive aesthetic makeover in line with BMW’s incoming Neue Klasse design language (already seen on the BMW i3 and BMW iX3).

Stately would be a polite way of putting it. BMW’s designers have been looking over the shoulder of Rolls-Royce’s team, especially when it comes to the application of what one could polite call ‘stately verticality’ (don’t forget that Rolls is part of the BMW Group and under the skin of the i7 there’s quite a bit of engineering acumen shared with Rolls-Royce). BMW calls the design ‘monolithic’, with new front and rear treatment – the latter evoking the tail-spanning light configuration of the much smaller 3 Series.

At the front, the 7 has been given a new face. The kidney grille is still enormous, but the combination of horizontal, vertical and 45-degree lines gives the car a faintly anonymous appearance, especially as the slim LED headlights have been reduced still further to thin lines on either side of the top of the radiator grille.

It’s more resolved than the original G70 model in the sense that it conveys the sense of a single, unified design (especially in two tone paint configuration), whereas the first generation car front elevation looked a little bit like two disparate models spliced together.

The 7 Series frequently benefits from customers opting into to the BMW Individual, where paint and trim options are practically limitless. Other bespoke options include sparkling crystal headlights and a dual-finish exterior paint (a new take on two-tone, combining matt and gloss finishes).

The intensive lighting package has orchestrated welcome and goodbye modes, while the optional ‘Ceremonial Light Carpet’ projects a cascade of light out from the doors, using 194,000 animated LED lights. Elsewhere in the cabin, as well as that additional customer screen and cinematic rear options, you’ll also find smartphone-style screens set into the rear door handles (‘Touch Command modules’), providing control options for windows, seats and the four-zone automatic climate control. The main cabin controls are operated via the BMW Panoramic iDrive system and BMW’s Operating System X. Alexa+ is the onboard AI agent of choice.

The standard Passenger Screen doubles down on the ‘wonky iPad on a shelf’ aesthetic of BMW interiors, adding a second smaller, asymmetric screen to give front seat passengers their own personal media space. Audio is provided by Bowers & Wilkins, with a standard complement of 18 speakers and 655 watts of power.

Upgrade to the B&W Diamond Surround Sound System and BMW has somehow found space for 35 speakers putting out 1,965 watts, including speakers integrated into the headsets for Dolby Atmos experience surround sound. The regular Comfort seats can be replaced by optional Executive Lounge seating in the rear, which come with a leg rest, heated armrests and greater recline angles.

Another major change is the dashboard. Instead of a traditional instrument binnacle behind the newly redesigned steering wheel, BMW’s Panoramic Vision feature projects information right across the width of the windscreen, just below the driver’s line of sight. This is combined with a 3D Head-Up display. There’s also an optional digital interior mirror – particularly useful if the Theatre Screen has been deployed and blocked off the view through the rear window.

BMW does its best to ensure that even its most limo-like models are still fine machines to drive despite their size and weight. The latest generation Level 2 driver assistance package includes a Motorway Assistant-style advanced cruise control that can handle junctions in most European countries (with the UK introduction to be confirmed) as well as slow for corners and roundabouts.

All-electric i7 models – three of them – launch first, with two plug-in hybrids to follow. The range leader is the i7 50 xDrive, which offers up to 452 miles of range, whilst the performance laurels going to the i7 M70 xDrive, with a total of 680 hp and 0-62 mph dispatched in 3.8 seconds. The two plug-in hybrid variants will be the 750e xDrive and the top-tier M760e xDrive, another BMW M Performance model.

New cars – especially those in the upper tiers of tech-stuffed sophisticated – are increasingly subjected to comprehensive online deconstructions of their various gadgets and trinkets. The new 7 Series will doubtless get the same treatment, thanks to its panoply of screens and servo-assisted seats.

It’s an impressive piece of work, but we can’t help but feel that the industry is obsessed with innovation for innovation’s sake, often at the expense of simplicity, practicality and repairability. However, for those in search of the latest, greatest, most gadget-stuffed vehicle on the roads, the 7 Series is most certainly a contender.

New BMW 7 Series, prices tbc, more information at BMW.co.uk

The new BMW i3 is here, representing the brand’s Neue Klasse design language in full effect. Previewed over the past couple of years by the 2021 BMW i Vision Circular, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse and the polychromatic BMW i Vision Dee (both 2023), the new i3 jumps straight to the top of the desirability charts.

Somehow, the brand’s design team have managed to steer away from the ever-increasingly brutal surfacing and gaping maws seen on BMWs big and small over the last few years and have cloaked the i3 in taut, unfussy bodywork that feels fresh and pure. Although the basic three-box saloon car shape has remained an auto industry constant since the 1950s, the i3 gives it a contemporary refresh.

Up front there’s another welcome reboot, this time for the ‘iconic’ kidney grille, which had reached epic proportions on models like the i4 and iX. Even the BMW iX3, the first model to showcase the Neue Klasse approach, retained the kidneys in a prominent, toothy position. With the i3, all that is banished, and the grille and light enclosure become one and the same, effectively two openings that flank the nose to give the car a shark-like profile without unnecessary surfacing.

The rear light treatment is similarly austere, with the rear panel and light structure sharing a chamfered profile as they turn to form the rear corners. It’s a satisfying display of massing, with a lightness and balance that doesn’t need to be offset by awkwardly nipped and tucked sills; instead, a simple flared line runs between the wheels, highlighting the negative curve at the base of the doors.

Inside, the dash follows fashion by placing a touchscreen panel front and centre for the lion’s share of driver interaction but then walks this back with a helpful quota of steering wheel buttons and handy physical controls for essentials like windows, mirrors and seats.

It also scores points for introducing the dash-spanning BMW Panoramic iDrive, a slender display that runs from pillar to pillar beneath the windscreen. There’s also an optional head-up display for the driver.

The new BMW Operating System X drives all these banks of information, an Android-based system that is designed to be continuously updated. BMW has divvied up the processing power for the HMI and electric drive system between four ‘specialised superbrain high-performance computers’, including one dedicated to driving dynamics, dubbed the Heart of Joy.

Time will tell as to whether the brand’s fabled dynamic capabilities can be reproduced by a chip, but despite its recent over-reliance on provocative design, BMW hasn’t yet dropped the ball on drivability. Nevertheless, the Heart of Joy system oversees driving, braking, charging and energy recuperation, as well as steering functions in autonomous modes. Greater processing power should translate to greater handling. At least that’s the idea.

Shown here in the i3 exclusive M Le Castellet Blue finish, this is the 50xDrive model, an all-wheel-drive variant with a total power output of 469hp. Ultra-fast charging (around 250 miles can be added in ten minutes) and an impressive range of 440 miles make this one of the flagships of the new range.

BMW calls the i3 the ‘core of the BMW brand reinvented’. The design and tech will not only appear in a number of different variants of i3 (including a proposed i3 wagon and performance versions). Right now it’s up against Mercedes-Benz’s very impressive CLA EV, although it’s a shade larger and will soon meet its match in the next generation C-Class.

ICE powered variants of the new 3-Series will also surface at some point but given the amount of effort expended on maximising range, drivability and a more sustainable approach to the supply chain, it’s hard to see how this EV could be improved.

BMW i3, first UK deliveries in Autumn 2026, prices tbc, BMW.co.uk, @BMWUK

The first VW Golf, Fiat Panda and Maserati Ghibli; the 1970s Lotus Esprit immortalised under water in James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me and the ‘gull-winged’ 1980s DeLorean DMC-12 in Back to the Future; the elegant early 1960s Alfa Romeo Giulia GT and super-practical late 1960s Suzuki Carry; or the mid-1970s everyman Hyundai Pony that kickstarted the Korean brand and the late 1970s BMW M1 supercar: Giorgetto Giugiaro created them all.

These design classics – most of which were developed by Italdesign, the design and engineering company he co-founded in 1968 – sit within a list of 300-plus production vehicles, dozens of concept cars, as well as cameras for Nikon, keyboards for Bontempi and even a type of pasta.

At the forefront of car design for five decades, Giorgetto Giugiaro sold the last of his shares in Italdesign to the VW Group in 2015 and set up GFG Style with his son Fabrizio in Turin to offer automotive, architecture and industrial design services. Now 87, Giugiaro is still chairman of the company and had a chat with Wallpaper* during a recent visit to the UK.

Giorgetto Giugiaro on car design then and now

Wallpaper*: What are your views on artificial intelligence?

Giorgetto Giugiaro: When technology is able to support your ideas, you can exploit it. Can artificial intelligence do better [than humans]? Maybe, but there always needs to be someone responsible. Design is not democracy. You need one person to decide. But I have to admit, that staying on the beach and pressing a button and the job is done [is appealing].

W*: You predicted over a decade ago that future cars would be more comfortable with easy-to-grasp functionality. It seems the first part of that prediction came true, but not the second. Why is so much of today’s car design user experience so bad?

GG: To ‘fish’ for a greater audience, car makers try to add more features. And for some, the user experience becomes worse. As a parallel, there are so many features in cars nowadays that we don’t have at home. So of course we are not used to them.

The touch functions on a car can also be dangerous. The interaction between human and car is so much faster. Before, you needed to move a stalk or push a button. Now you move close [to a screen with your fingers] and you’ve already activated something. Looking at some futuristic interiors there’s no need to go to Disneyland because everything is already inside the car, with lights and more. There is too much.

W*: You say good design needs to be ‘honest’ for the public to accept it. Do you think some modern EVs are not honest enough and that’s partly why they’re not being accepted?

GG: It is a commercial problem in that there needs to be financial advantages for the manufacturers. And [for consumers] there’s a shortage of information and a psychological problem: when you choose a product, you want it to say something about you.

W*: Given the variety of engines and motors that customers can choose today, plus greater safety legislation, do you think you ‘had it easier’ designing cars in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s?

GG: [Chuckles] Contrary to what you think, the more rules there are, the smarter the product can be. You have to think harder. When aerodynamics started to be taken seriously, it was a problem for designing cars, but over time it helped to improve the product.

W*: Why do you think your Lotus Esprit design has stood the test of time (beyond its role in several 007 movies)?

GG: It is the simplicity of the whole and the proportions. It’s the same with a man’s or a woman’s face, the proportion between the parts and the simplicity of the lines. This gives the beauty, the power to last. Looking at the car now, I realise it didn’t get so old.

W*: What do you think of Apple’s design work on the iPhone?

GG: This device made us lazy, so we don’t even remember the phone numbers of our friends and families anymore. And it removes our time to create, as we look at what other people are doing and because it does everything.

W*: …but you still have one!

GG: [Everyone laughs] It does help me talk easily with friends in other parts of the world. And it makes me think: if we have a device so powerful today, what will humankind be able to do in another 50 years?

GFGStyle.it, @GFG.Style

Munich’s IAA Mobility Show is a different kind of motorshow, reflecting the industry’s general shift away from big-budget events that have fallen out of favour with the public. In addition to an IAA Summit for professionals and media, designed to entice big-name manufacturers alongside start-ups, commentators and industry-watchers from all aspects of mobility design, and the regular show stand arrangement, there’s also the IAA Open Space.

The last is an open event for the general public, scattered around the streets, stores and exhibition spaces in the heart of Munich and designed to put new ideas and fresh launches in front of the very people who’ll ultimately end up buying them. The bi-annual event started in 2021, grew more in 2023, and this time around, there were even more manufacturers involved, with major announcements made across the board.

Some of the concepts on show have already broken cover, including the Vauxhall Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo and the Audi Concept C, as well as a major activation by Cupra.

Read on to discover our selection of key reveals from the show.

BMW iX3

The home-ground advantage was played by all the German manufacturers. Munich is, after all, the home of BMW. To consolidate this status, BMW chose the IAA to launch its ‘Neue Klasse’ iX3, the first production version of a new design language that’s been previewed by a number of concept cars.

In the metal, this new all-electric mid-sized SUV impresses with its restraint, and the apparent about-face BMW is taking with its signature kidney grilles – once huge, now daintily proportioned. The interior pairs a central touchscreen with a slim, wide display set just beneath the windscreen. There’s more minimalism here as well, especially on the pared-back door trims. With a promised range of up to 500 miles, the iX3 will be one of the first true volume cars to do away with range anxiety altogether.

BMW.co.uk, @BMW

Volkswagen

VW also had a slew of major announcements up its sleeve, both for the main Volkswagen brand and for wider activity in the VW Group. In addition to cementing the existence of a compact ‘Electric Urban Car Family’, featuring distinct but related models from Volkswagen, Cupra, and Škoda, all priced from around €25,000, VW also doubled down on a new naming strategy.

Turns out that the ID. name plate will no longer be the only sign of a pure VW EV. As of 2026, what would have been the ID.2 will now be known as the ID.Polo, with ID.Golf to follow. The realisation that these classic model names, with their decades of history and loyal following, could simply be taken into the electric era seems like a no-brainer – the only surprise is that it took VW so long to realise.

The ID.Polo, along with its GTI sibling, were both shown at IAA – albeit still in camouflage – along with the ID.Cross concept, a compact urban SUV. Both slot into the Electric Urban Car Family announced above, alongside the Cupra Raval and Škoda’s Epiq.

VW also showed the newest version of the popular T-Roc, another compact SUV. Finally, there was the ID.Every1, a concept with the task of bringing VW back into the ultra-compact urban car category like classic older models such as the Lupo and the Up!.

Volkswagen.de, @Volkswagen

Porsche 911 Turbo S

Porsche presented its new flagship 911, the 911 Turbo S. A legendary name, this latest version of the evergreen sports car goes heavy on the tech. Power output is at record levels (711 PS), thanks in part to a T-Hybrid powertrain that incorporates two electric exhaust gas turbochargers. There’s also all-wheel drive and an EV-bothering 0-62mph sprint time of 2.5 seconds.

Like all 911s, the new Turbo S is designed to be easy to live with, combining that massive power with a spacious cabin, great sightlines and a colossal breadth of dynamic ability, from everyday use about town to the challenge of the track.

Porsche.com, @Porsche

Mercedes-Benz GLC

Another big reveal came from Mercedes, which countered BMW’s iX3 with the new version of its equivalent model, the GLC. The all-electric Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Technology (the car’s official name) also demonstrates a company rowing back from the idea of separate lines of ICE and EV cars. The first GLC was introduced back in 2015 and a decade has truly transformed the model.

Instead of its rather lumpy forebears, the newest GLC is relatively slim in profile for an SUV, with neat rear-light treatment. The big grille rather lets the ensemble down – no lessons learned from BMW’s vogue for shrinking front-end graphics. Inside, Mercedes is still wedded to vast displays with the latest iteration of the dash-devouring MBUX Hyperscreen.

The car’s operating system uses a so-called multi-agent approach, taking the best bits of AI from both Google and Microsoft. As a result, Mercedes claims that ‘for the customer, talking to the MBUX Virtual Assistant is like chatting with a friend – it can provide detailed responses and answer follow-up questions without the need to repeat context’.

Mercedes-Benz.de, @MercedesBenz

Avatr Vision Xpectra concept

There were also plenty of Chinese brands represented, marked a fresh wave of new metal intended to increase the country’s Western market share. New models from Leapmotor, Deepal, GAC and Dongfeng included the GS7 SUV, with its quirky animated headlights, the Aion UT, as well as the arrival of Dongfeng’s new Forthing sub-brand in Europe and the Huawei-owned Aito brand, which showed three new crossover models.

Our attention was grabbed by Avatr’s dramatic Vision Xpectra, a vast new concept created by this sub-brand from Changan Automobile to express what it calls ‘emotive luxury’.

As well as the sheer scale of the 5m-plus limousine, with its near fully-glazed upper body, there’s a wealth of technology crammed into the interior, much of which is controlled via a VPA (Virtual Personal Assistant), the latest must-have for modern cars. Shown alongside production models, including the Avatr 06, 07, 11 and 12, the Xpectra is a bold statement of intent.

Vision.Avatr.com

Polestar 5

Polestar finally revealed the production version of the long-awaited Polestar 5 at Munich. As the EV company gets closer and closer to completing its projected line-up, the arrival of the 5 marks the most premium Polestar yet, with the Performance model starting at £104,900 for the Launch Edition.

Based on the original 2020 Precept Concept, the Polestar 5 is described by the company as a ‘performance grand tourer’. The dual motor model should be good for around 400 miles of range, whilst the rapid Polestar 5 Performance is rated at 351 miles. At 5m in length, the Polestar 5 is limousine-sized, with rear space and accoutrements to match.

Polestar.com, @Polestarcars

Mini John Cooper Works concepts

Mini created a large-scale installation in the heart of Munich, complete with faux Tube station entrances and lots of lovely British clichés. When it came to cars, the BMW offshoot chose to present a collaboration with the lifestyle brand Deus Ex Machina, which resulted in two one-off John Cooper Works cars, dubbed The Machina and The Skeg.

Drawing influences from drag racing and surf culture, the two concepts are full-blooded race cars and have inspired a capsule collection from the brand. Asymmetric styling cues and liveries are coupled with spoilers and slick tyres, with one car celebrating EV power and the other traditional ICE.

Mini.de, Deuscustoms.eu

Renault Clio

The Clio is an important car for Renault, even though most of the company’s recent attention has focused on the 4 and the 5. The Clio was a mainstay for many years, and now the compact car is back, this time with a hybrid powertrain. The sixth generation of this popular small car is actually larger than ever before and shares several interior elements with the 4 and 5 models.

There’s little evidence of retro design here, however, with a more aggressive front-end styling. Despite the hybrid power, it’s still a light car by modern standards, and should be impressively economical as a result.

Renault.de, @Renault_de

Škoda Vision O

We see hints of the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Nomad in Škoda’s brave Vision O estate car concept. At a time when the practical, elegant estate has been all but decimated by the SUV, the brand’s decision to double down and reinvigorate the segment is a welcome one.

Look beyond those very conceptual doors and you’ll see a finely proportioned wagon that combines Škoda’s playful but practical approach with a new design language, ‘Modern Solid’. The dashboard gets the two-screen set-up also seen in BMW’s iX3, with the upper level dubbed the ‘Škoda Horizon Display’, while there’s also a softer, more natural approach to interior materials and aesthetics, as well as ‘Bio-Adaptive Lighting’ that uses natural light cycles to keep occupants feeling fresh and alert.

As well as 650 litres of luggage capacity, the Vision O also debuts new ‘Simply Clever’ features, the little design add-ons that have come to define Škoda’s attention to detail. The signature door-stowed umbrella is present and correct (no fewer than four of them), and the car incorporates a fridge as well as a detachable Bluetooth speaker.

Also on display was the new Škoda Epiq, a conceptual preview of the company’s contribution to VW’s quartet of compact all-electric city cars. Like its siblings, the Epiq will hit the streets in 2026, largely unchanged from the car you see here.

With a low price, above average range for the sector (c.260 miles) and a spacious, functional interior, the Epiq will be the first production car to incorporate the Modern Solid design language and shows the brand hasn’t forgotten its functional, affordable roots.

Skoda-Auto.com, @Skodagram

Hyundai Concept Three

This is the Concept Three, a preview of the next and smallest car to bear Hyundai’s Ioniq sub-brand EV badge. Expected to reach production as the Ioniq 3, if you overlook the tinted windows, lemon-yellow interior and purple highlights, you’ll see the fundamental silhouette of the next-gen compact car.

The Three actually brought to mind the 2007 Hyundai HND-3 concept, which in turn reached production as the quirky and asymmetric Veloster in 2011. Both cars had an unusual door arrangement, something that’s carried through to this concept, with its coach rear door.

The concept demonstrates what Hyundai is calling its ‘Art of Steel’ design language, doubling down on the industrial conglomerate’s impressive ability with the material, along with the Parametric Pixel detailing seen across the rest of the Ioniq range. All European EVs were on display at IAA Mobility 2025, as well as the Insteroid concept first shown at Seoul in the Spring.

Hyundai.com, @Hyundai

It’s half a century since BMW pioneered the intersection between automotive design and fine art. The very first BMW Art Car was unveiled in 1975, the work of American sculptor Alexander Calder. The idea came from French auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulai, who convinced Jochen Neerpasch, the founder and head of BMW Motorsport, to let Calder create the livery of the BMW 3.0 CSL he was entering into that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite not finishing, Poulain’s idea set the stage for more collaborations, buoyed by a positive public reception.

The scheme was driven by a collaboration with Leo Castelli, the pioneering New York art gallerist and dealer. Castelli’s contacts brought Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol into the project to create new liveries for Poulain’s subsequent drives at Le Mans. Then in the early 1980s, the Art Car programme opened up and invited artists to work on standard product models, before returning to a racing focus in 1999. Since then, the BMW Art Car has been a dynamic expression of the company’s commitment to the arts in all its forms, ‘a perfect playground for art and design, technology and innovation, motorsport and engineering’.

To celebrate the scope and scale of this ongoing corporate commitment, BMW has released archive imagery of the works in progress, as well as announced a worldwide celebratory programme of exhibitions and displays. The BMW Art Car World Tour will roll through 2025 and 2026, taking select cars to auto shows and fairs, including Art Basel Hong Kong, the Shanghai Auto Show, Art Basel and Contemporary Istanbul. There will also be a major display at the Louwman Museum in The Hague throughout July and August 2025, featuring eight of the 20 cars.

The BMW Art Cars and their creators

Further information on the BMW Art Car Collection can be found at BMW.com

BMW has launched a new heritage website, an online product list that chronicles no less than 424 cars released by the brand since its inception in 1928 through to 2008. Designed to supplement the general BMW Group Archive, this visual catalogue of BMW design charts both the company’s evolution and the changing form of the passenger car.

With a back catalogue that goes back to the 3/15 hp model, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s first car (a re-badged Austin 7 built under license by Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach from 1927, a company subsequently acquired by BMW the following year) to the E46 series of the BMW 3-Series at the turn of the century, there’s something here for every fan of the marque.

The site’s current cut-off point only includes one SUV (or SAV, in BMW parlance, for Sports Activity Vehicle), the 1999 BMW X5. Given that the contemporary BMW line-up includes no less than 24 variants of the modern X Series line-up, it’s a snapshot of a different time in car design.

We present a selection of our favourites below.

1955 BMW Isetta 300 Standard

The Isetta 300 is one of the enduring classics of the microcar era, an evergreen design that inspired the modern day Microlino, amongst other things. Originally designed in Italy, the two-seater was built under license by BMW, powered by a tiny motorcycle engine.

1964 BMW LS Coupé

This compact two-door coupé was a sportier offering for the 700 series. Enlarged and updated from late 1964, it proved a popular small car in 1960s Germany.

1976 BMW 630CS (E24)

A final throw of the dice for non-fuel injected engines in BMW’s flagship 6-Series, we admire the crisp lines of this 1976 630CS. Shaped by then Chief Designer Paul Bracq, the 6-Series lives on today as the 8-Series, although it’s the form of this 70s original that still remains influential.

1978 BMW M1 (E26)

BMW’s only mid-engine production car, the M1 started life as a joint venture between BMW and Lamborghini, with design input from Giorgetto Giugiaro. Just 399 examples of the M1 were made, including a BMW art car by Andy Warhol.

1979 BMW 732i (E23)

Stately and exclusive, the 7-Series was BMW’s answer to the Mercedes S-Class, introduced in 1977. New for 1979, the 732i model featured cutting-edge engine electronics from Bosch.

1988 BMW Z1 (E30)

The first BMW ‘Z’ car was this limited-edition roadster, a striking design overseen by Harm Lagaay. The doors retracted into the front sills, while the compact proportions and fine handling gave BMW’s sports car ambitions a boost.

1992 BMW 850CSi

The flagship of the 1990s-era 8-Series coupé, the V12-engined 850CSi was built in very limited numbers. Hugely luxurious and exceptionally complex, the original 8-Series is currently undergoing a reassessment as a modern classic.

The new archive is available at BMWGroup-Classic.com

The year was capped off with one of the most widely seen and discussed concept cars of recent times, Jaguar’s controversial Type 00. Following hot on the heels of an even more hotly contested brand re-launch, Type 00 ticked all the boxes of a radical re-boot, a polarising proposal that manages to keep Jaguar’s production intentions swathed in some mystery.

Some manufacturers were content to let their concepts stay purely in the realms of the imagery – Renault’s R17 restomod springs to mind – while others put forward ideas that felt like their time would never come, for better or for worse. Concepts are mostly just that - from our list of 2023’s conceptual bests, only the Callum Skye has made it through to production readiness.

So what would we like to see built in 2025? If DS can distil elements of its SM Tribute into a production car, that would be a welcome sight, and Alpine’s A390 β Concept indicates there’s more scope to the performance brand than first appeared. Read on to discover our top ten.

01. Jaguar Type 00

Jaguar’s svelte Type 00 wasn’t really much of a provocation in design terms, but some people took the big electric GT concept very personally. New materials, new forms, new ethos and new branding, all wrapped up in a Miami Pink bodyshell that hints at next year’s all-new production car.

READ MORE

02. Tesla Cybercab Robotaxi

Tesla’s Cybercab was an inexplicably svelte two-seater that promised a level of autonomy many doubted it could deliver by 2026, when the production version arrives. Now that Musk has better access to the rule book, all that might change.

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03. Verne autonomous taxi

Another ambitious conceptual foray into autonomous transport, Verne’s driverless machine also offered only two seats, albeit in a much more compact footprint. Rimac Automobili’s side project wants to get going in Europe before the end of the decade.

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04. Scout Motors Traveler and Terra concepts

Volkswagen re-booted Scout, a venerable name in all-American SUVs, with the Traveler and Terra concepts. Electrified and simplified, the production cars that follow should hew closely to this admirable template.

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05. SM Tribute by DS Automobiles

DS Automobiles finally found the right part of their archive with this fantastic homage to the SM of the 70s. The French company promises that upcoming models will contain more than a hint of the SM Tribute’s fine lines.

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06. Renault R17 electric restomod x Ora-ïto

Part of its strategy of bespoke one-off retro-reworks in collaboration with named designers, Renault took time out from its impressive production car revival to showcase the Ora-ïto-styled R17, a symphony in classy brown.

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07. Cadillac SOLLEI Concept

Cadillac offset their line-up of chunky SUVs with this wild foray into conceptual design, a vast convertible that recalled the company’s 60s and 70s heyday. From its Manila Cream colour scheme to its elaborate marquetry detailing, the SOLLEI shone brightly.

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08. KIA PV5 WKNDR and EV9 ADVNTR

Although Kia has a showroom full of futuristic production cars, it still found time to put out two conceptual visions of future campers. We especially liked the PV5 WKNDR, van-like and vowel-less, with a multi-functional interior.

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09. BMW Vision Neue Klasse X

BMW’s clarity of conceptual vision has come into sharp focus in recent years, and the Vision Neue Klasse X was no exception. Promising a new design language for its X-series of SUVs, this was one vision we hope materialises soon.

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10. Alpine A390 β Concept

Alpine’s A390 Beta was one of several high-profile French designs revealed at the revitalised 2024 Mondial de l'Auto in Paris. The stylish electric crossover concept showed a way for Renault’s sporting relation to break out into new markets.

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The BMW i5 Touring (or, to give this model its full name, the i5 eDrive40 M Sport Pro Touring) is the first pure electric estate car from the Bavarian brand. The i5 is to the 5-Series what the i7 is to the 7-Series, a pure EV version of a car that’s also available in more conventional ICE and PHEV set-up, with stylistic tweaks inside and out to reflect the whizzy electric ‘i'-ness of it all.

First things first. This is a really great car. It’s precisely what we’ve been hoping a volume manufacturer would do for the best part of a decade – electrify a proper, full-sized estate car – and it loses none of the character and verve that made big BMW saloons and estates such endearing cars to own and drive in the past. Admittedly, a lot of this praise stems from the fact that the i5 is emphatically not an SUV, but along with the good there are still a few quibbles.

No piece on a contemporary BMW can sidestep the issue of design. Even though the ‘standard’ new BMW 5/ i5-Series has standardised the muscley bulk once left to the flagship ‘M’ performance models, the basic form has always swung wildly between crisp, Teutonic perfection (the E28, E34 and E39 series produced between 1981 and 2003), wild experimentation (Chris Bangle’s infamous but now widely admired E60 model from 2003) and the rather wishy-washy (everything else).

For a long time, 5-Series production has been split between a four-door saloon and four-door estate, with the longer roof of the latter usually giving a bit of an aesthetic bump over the saloon.

The G60 version of the 5-Series and i5 came to market last year, with the estate arriving 12 months later. It’s not clear how much longer BMW will persist with the i5/5-Series divide, now that it’s clear that customers simply want the choice between ICE, PHEV and EV, without having to sign up for a bunch of esoteric design decisions in the process.

Having driven the car, I think the i5 does EV pretty well, certainly from the rear three-quarters view that offers the most functional and practical vantage point of the cavernous estate car body. The less said about the large illuminated double kidney grille the better, save that it’s not completely clear what the massive scale is over-compensating for.

Inside, the story just gets better. The array of tech on display is almost dizzying, especially with the way the on-screen graphic theme is continued through the faceted light bars that ring the cabin.

Switch the car to sport mode, for example, and you’re suddenly orbited by a pulsing slash of red. This continues even more unsubtly into the audio realm, with the availability of several driving ‘themes’ – sport, expressive, silent, etc. Each splashes the dash with a signature colour and wallpaper and also throws a dedicated ‘engine noise’ into the mix.

We had fun with these but what initially feels playful ends up being rather shallow. ‘Sport’ mode transforms the accelerator into a cosmic wah pedal, with a throbbing, vaguely sci-fi boost sound that passengers likened to a light sabre being waved around in the boot. 'Expressive' is even more OTT: fun for a minute in all its cinematic silliness (though it’s more Logan's Run than Interstellar) before you pull back and realise that this is a real physical object you’re flinging through space and time purely to hear a silly noise conjured up in a Munich music studio.

That said, the rest of the i5’s dashboard and controls score highly. The HMI is legible and logical, there are physical buttons where you need them, and you can forgive the odd wonky, wayward angle or over-designed speaker grille because the whole ensemble works together so well. BMW tends to pitch its design just ahead of where the mass market tolerance is, which not only adds longevity to its model line but ensures it looks sensational with the passing of a decent chunk of time. Come 2044, and this i5 will be a bona fide classic.

All that might change as the company slowly transitions into a more classically elegant design language. We’ve already seen things like the limited edition Skytop Roadster and the trim, minimal Vision Neue Klasse concept that’s said to be an accurate rendition of the next-generation 3-Series. Will the i5 and 5-Series follow suit or remain baroquely styled outliers?

What else did we like? A courtesy light that didn’t illuminate the pavement with a starry, splashy logo but actually lit up the curb instead. The handling and drivetrain were also pitch perfect, with EV weight cunningly balanced out of the suspension, and snappy acceleration that is more than you’ll need on a day-to-day basis (although fans of superfluous horsepower will enjoy the wheel-mounted boost paddle that brings up a disturbingly target-shaped graphic on the head-up display and throws even more power your way for a limited time).

Range? The official figure of just over 320 miles would be fantastic, if it felt even remotely achievable. Spend too much time playing with the hyperspace buttons and you’ll come up remarkably short.

In any case, if you absolutely, positively, unquestioningly need more power, then BMW will be delighted to sell you the i5 M60 xDrive Touring, at a premium of course. And that’s before you’ve delved into a copious options list. EVs, especially ones that are this good, are still very much at a premium. Right now, you suspect that’s the way BMW would like it to stay.

BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport Pro Touring, price as tested £96,995.00 (includes £17,640 of extras), BMW.co.uk

BMW is venturing into the world of bespoke limited editions with the reveal of the new Skytop convertible, a production version of the BMW Concept Skytop exhibited at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. It’s a classically elegant targa-topped two-seater, and just 50 examples are now being built for collectors. As is always the way, this coterie of collectors is well-known to the brand, and as a result, all 50 cars are already spoken for.

So what can you expect to see on the well-manicured lawns of future concours events? The Skytop was overseen by Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design, who drew parallels with another recent limited-run car, the BMW 3.0 CSL built in homage to the 1970s-era BMW 3.0 CSL ‘Batmobile’. The Skytop is more of a grand tourer and this time the points of reference are two scarce but no less desirable models from its roadster portfolio, the 1956 BMW 507 and 1998 BMW Z8 (which was itself a throwback to the 1950s car).

In terms of style, silhouette and simplicity, the Skytop is a world away from many of the Bavarian car builder’s current fare, especially its monumental, busy-surfaced SUVs like the iX, XM and X7. BMW’s design department has recently undergone a bit of a shake up, with former Polestar supremo Maximilian Missoni taking over this particularly troublesome spot in the market, the upper mid-size and luxury-class models.

Missoni is something of a minimalist, and although his appointment came many months, perhaps years, after the Skytop design was signed off, it’s a sign that future BMWs might be toning it down a little.

In many respects, the Skytop is rather traditional. There are no batteries here, not even a hybrid system; this is a pure ICE vehicle, with BMW’s powerful 4.4-litre V8 generating 625 hp the old-fashioned way. It’s paired with an eight-speed Steptronic Sport transmission and BMW xDrive intelligent all-wheel-drive system.

Inside and out, the main focus is on craftsmanship and elegance, with everything pared back to maximise the lines and forms of the ‘Floating Sundown Silver’ paint. The door handles, for example, take the shape of winglets that peek up from the door shoulders, while integrated lighting embedded in the BMW kidney grille defines the shark-nosed shape familiar to BMW enthusiasts for decades.

The soft-top roof is leather trimmed, as is the rollover bar that gives the car its Targa-topped profile. The car is converted into its open form by removing two roof sections and stowing them in the luggage area. Other accessories and features are taken from BMW’s upper end models, including the BMW Live Cockpit Professional set-up with its head-up display.

Whether the Skytop’s style will find its way into future (mass) production BMWs is as yet unknown. For decades now, BMW has presented itself as a design monolith, an aesthetic juggernaut that often innovates rather than excites. With a new era underway, perhaps the Skytop is a spearhead for a softer, more elegant future design direction.

BMW Skytop, sold out, BMWGroup.com, @BMWGroup

‘Beneath The Surface’ is how Les Rencontres d’Arles, the annual photography festival in the south of France, has defined 2024's impressive curation of over 40 exhibitions, presenting nearly 200 artists.

Sprawled throughout the city of Arles’ charming streets (and a collection of satellite shows across the region), works are exhibited in myriad unexpected contexts, from 12th-century chapels and cloisters to the upper floor of a Monoprix supermarket. Just like the heat of the local summer, photography has woven its way into the life of the city, open now until 29 September 2024.

Les Roncontres d'Arles 2024

‘Who has not dreamed of seeing what the eye cannot grasp?’ is a curious premise for a visual medium, but for artist Mustapha Azeroual and the curator Marjolaine Levy it became part of the framework from which they developed their exhibition ‘The Green Ray’. The works were conceived with the BMW Art Makers programme, which each year supports the creation of an experimental visual arts project, responsive to current social and environmental challenges.

As you first enter the cavernous cloister that hosts the exhibition, you encounter a moment for pause, as a reflection of evolving colourful light bounces back to you from a palate-cleansing white wall. Following into the main space, two lenticular panopticons surround you with abstract sweeping landscapes of colour, alluding to a horizon that cannot be determined. It’s akin to the experience of being at sea, or atop a tall mountain at sunrise or sunset, with a near-infinite sky.

At an impressive 4m high, these shifting visions envelop us in a poetic sensory experience. Levy refers to the art historian Alexander Alberro, who believes that ‘the more works engage the viewer's nervous system, the more egalitarian they are’. She explains, ‘When a work acts on the eye, we are all equal. Insofar as Mustapha’s work is an optical and kinetic experience, there is no sense of hierarchy among the audience. We will see things differently depending on where we are and how our brain perceives the colours, but we will all have a physical experience. The challenge lies in our ability to represent this environmental reality in an abstract way. By doing so, we are witnessing the socialisation of art.’

In a similarly levelling approach, each image was created from photographs taken by sailors crossing the Arctic, Indian, Pacific and Mediterranean oceans. This evolves the traditional individualistic authorship template for artistic creation to a method that is more congruent with the works' reverence towards the natural world.

Azeroual says, ‘I’ve never wanted to travel to take photographs… It didn’t make sense to generate pollution in order to capture the effects of human activity. When, for “The Green Ray”, we decided to work on the high seas, which is a little-explored area, it was obvious that I wasn’t going to set off on a boat for several months. It made more sense to use a community of sailors. As it was winter, few people were travelling. So, we used archive images. All of them were taken in identified areas that enabled me to map remote spaces, such as the Southern Ocean, where I have never been, and where I will probably never go.’

This immersion combined with a sensitivity towards resources extends beyond methods of production and into the presentation; furniture within the exhibition is made from eco-responsible materials by BMW designers, and the sceneographic structures can be reused in future exhibitions. ‘The Green Ray’ can be experienced in Arles until 29 September, after which it will travel to Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, then to Art Basel Paris in October.

Other highlights of this year's festival include Cristina De Middel’s ‘Journey to the Center’ which reframes the migration route across Mexico as a courageous and dynamic journey rather than a fearful escape. Addressing the often over-simplistic perspective taken, Middel uses a layered visual language of straight documentary, constructed images and archival material to do justice to the path’s complexity.

Another must-see is Mo Yi’s work ‘Me in My Landscape’, which celebrates the self-taught artist's unusual approach to the photographic gaze – he would shoot from a camera behind his neck, or fixed to a stick, allowing him to photograph at ground level while walking. From his perspective as quite an outsider, Mo Yi’s works define a particular spirit of China’s social fabric in flux during the 20th century.

rencontres-arles.com/en

Along with Polestar’s striking Concept BST and the UK debut of the Hongqi marque, there were plenty of other major first appearances at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. All of this points to the annual Sussex event becoming more and more important as a place for manufacturers to bring their wares before a geed-up public.

Goodwood is a venue saturated with automotive atmosphere, from the pinnacle of contemporary classic car culture to raucous race machines, with the everyday family transportation of tomorrow somewhere in the middle. We’ve rounded up 11 of the best on show, from ultra-extreme hypercars to next-generation EVs.

2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed highlights

BMW M5

The BMW M5 is one of the legends of the modern sports car world, the top of the 5-Series tree transformed by the company’s M-division into a subtle, practical yet hugely impressive performance machine. Over 40 years, the M5 has become more and more extreme, and the latest iteration dropped at Goodwood last week.

Featuring a plug-in hybrid powertrain, the new M5 is significantly up on power compared to its predecessor, but it’s also carrying a mighty weight penalty, thanks to the addition of enough batteries for a 46-mile EV-only range. Will this twin turbo V8 be the last ICE engine in an M5?

BMW M5, from £111,405, BMW-M.com, @BMWM

MG HS SUV

This is MG’s new HS SUV, an extensively reworked and updated new version of the Chinese manufacturer’s best-selling large electric SUV. Overhauled inside and out, with a notable increase in size the HS now comes with a full sweep of dashboard screens, a 360-degree camera system and wireless charging, as well as plenty of space.

The HS is not quite on the nose in terms of styling, with a hefty, angular grille and a pointy, slightly unbalanced stance. It won't matter, because MG’s USP is low, low cost and the HS is an exceptionally well equipped EV for the price.

MG HS, from £24,995, MG.co.uk, @MGMotorUK

MG Cyber GTS Concept

MG also surprised the show by revealed a coupé version of its new Cyberster Roadster. The new Cyber GTS is a full 2+2, unlike its two-seater soft-topped sibling, yet it retains the dramatic scissor doors that give the Cyberster its distinctive style (quite apart from being the first open-topped EV on the market).

The result is a sports car that promises a bit more practicality, excellent range and genuinely impressive looks. Should the Cyber GTS gets the green light it's expected to come to market in 2025

MG Cyber GTS, concept only for now, MG.co.uk, @MGMotorUK

Red Bull RB17

At the upper, upper end of the market, Goodwood marked the global debut of the long-awaited Red Bull RB17, a track-only hypercar from the current dominant force in Formula One. The RB17 is the brainchild and career apogee of Red Bull’s in-house designer and aerodynamicist Adrian Newey. In addition to helping guide the Austrian team to F1 victory after victory, Newey was also the driving force behind the Aston Martin Valkyrie.

If anything, the latter was hamstrung by the requirement for it to be road legal. There are no such restrictions on the RB17, which also exploits aero tricks and power options that no F1 car is allowed to do. Weighing in under 900kg and powered by a Cosworth-built V10 engine, power output is estimated at around 1,200bhp, all stuck to the track with Newey’s trademark understanding of aerodynamic perfection. Red Bull say they’ll built 50 cars; expect a price of between £5m and £6m.

Red Bull RB17, more information at RedBullRacing.com, @RedBullRacing

Genesis GV60 Magma Concept

Genesis is following in the footsteps of sister brand Hyundai by creating a high-performance badge for its range of EVs. In Genesis’s world, that badge is Magma, and the very first car to bear it will be the GV60, which should appear some time next year.

The Korean company showcased a concept, resplendent in the sub-brand’s Magma orange livery, that gives you an idea of what to expect: bodykit, lowered and widened, with a darker, brooding interior trim. The 'standard' Genesis GV60 is no slouch, like most high-end EVs, so you expect the performance boosts to focus on dynamics and ride rather than outright speed.

Genesis GV60 Magma, more information at Genesis.com, @Genesis_Europe

Alpine A290

Another all-electric sports car, only this time in a rather more modest form. The new Alpine A290 is the uprated, performance-focused variant of the all-new Renault 5 E-tech. The Alpine brand has its origins in tuning and fettling Renaults and the A290 keeps that tradition alive.

With 220bhp on tap, and a vivacious design language that brings to mind the mighty 80s-era Renault 5 Turbo2, the littlest Alpine could be the ultimate compact electric sports car.

Alpine A290, more information at Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars

Land Rover Defender Octa

At the other extreme is the new Land Rover Defender Octa, JLR’s answer to the relentless SUV power wars. No hybrid systems, just a massive 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 – closely related to the BMW M5’s powerplant – and all the usual Defender off-road ability. With 635bhp, the Octa is easily the most powerful Defender the factory has ever made. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and a hefty price as well.

Land Rover Defender Octa, from £143,500, more information at LandRover.co.uk, @LandRover

Honda Prelude Concept

Along with a truck-load of classic racing machines, Honda brought its recent Prelude Concept to Goodwood. This is a modern iteration of a model that found much favour in the UK until it was killed off at the turn of the century. The Prelude nameplate returns to grace a hybrid coupe design that should appear in production form in 2025, demonstrating a revived commitment to practical sports cars in the hybrid and electric age.

Honda Prelude, more information at Honda.co.uk, @HondaUKcars

Yangwang U9

Yangwang is the high-end subsidiary of Chinese brand BYD. In addition to the massive U8 SUV, the company also hopes to start selling its U9 supercar. With low, dramatic mid-engine looks (even though it has an all-electric powertrain), the company hopes the U9 could be a credible alternative to Ferrari and Lamborghini – it’ll benefit from the lack of sales tax added on to imported supercars.

The headline stat is a 0-62 time of under 2.5 seconds and the dramatic bodywork was overseen by Global Director of BYD Design Wolfgang Egger, formerly of Alfa Romeo.

Yangwang C9, more information at YanwangAuto.com

Ford Capri

Ford’s decision to revive the much-loved Capri brand name for its new electric coupé SUV is a controversial one. The Capri (1968-1986) was a strict two-door coupé, an affordable sports car with a slightly lairy, laddish image but which nevertheless engendered huge affection amongst its 1.9 million-strong owner base.

The Capri is now reborn as a high-riding four-door fastback, with not a lot of visual parity with the original. Instead, the design shares a lot of form language and proportion with the Polestar 2, and the platform underneath is shared with Volkswagen’s ID.4. Time will tell if it’ll be as successful as its Sixties forebear.

Ford Capri, from £42,075, more information at Ford.co.uk, @FordUK

INEOS Grenadier Detour

Not content with outdoing the original Land Rover Defender’s rugged charm, Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS car company has now given its core product the luxury treatment. The Grenadier Detour is a special limited edition of the old school off-roader, developed by the company’s in-house customisation service Arcane Works.

Interior finishes include Bridge of Weir leather, wool headliner, and plenty of options to add your own unique stamp on the vehicle.

INEOS Grenadier Detour, more information at INEOSGrenadier.com, @INEOS_Grenadier

The 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed runs from 10-13 July 2025, more information at Goodwood.com, @FoSGoodwood

‘I'm fascinated by how we are intertwined with our technology,’ says Es Devlin when we meet at her London studio to discuss her partnership with BMW, with whom she is debuting a new series of installations set to debut at Art Basel 2024 (13-16 June).

‘BMW genuinely want to facilitate an actual meeting of minds, and that's what attracted me to this collaboration, which we have been talking about since 2017,’ she adds. ‘We have been waiting to find a genuine overlap of my lines of inquiry with their lines of inquiry. And this is the one.’ For her new works, encompassing sound, music and light, Devlin has been inspired by her time with BMW’s engineers and their work to make hydrogen a prime energy source for their electric vehicles. ‘It started with these conversations with the engineers, and then the work you see at the booth [in Art Basel] is very personal, looking back to my first memory, which was this line of light through water. That's how we begin the work in Basel. So I feel that the collaboration has allowed me to really continue my journey as an artist, as well as overlapping with these engineers.’

This intertwining of the artistic with the scientific isn’t new for Devlin, who has embraced a mish-mash of mediums and references throughout her career. Here, she looks to the scientific process itself, translating the potential of the electric BMW iX5 Hydrogen – which uses the energy from hydrogen itself to drive the motor, alongside a specially developed battery – into artworks that explore human and scientific progress. ‘Hydrogen is the most abundant atom in the universe,’ says Devlin, who studied the hydrogen fuel cell technology that enables the car to draw oxygen as it’s driven, and reconnect it with hydrogen to create energy. ‘And at the same time, the other thing you generate is water. It blew my mind that what is coming out of the exhaust pipe is water.’

Devlin builds on both this technology and the culturally eclectic foundations that underpin all her work for the series of multimedia pieces she has created for BMW. It includes two new works: Surfacing (2024) is a collaboration with choreographer Sharon Eyal that plays on light, music and water. A playful exploration of the fluid boundaries of walls of water, it becomes a magic show, drawing the eye with a trick of the light before surprising and delighting the viewer; in Surfacing II (2024) painted televisions offer a mash-up of the digital and the traditional, a haunting recontextualising of the human figure. ‘With painting TVs, you only get one go at it. I did lots of practice before, with these big brush strokes on Perspex. I had seen Frank Auerbach’s Charcoal Heads and it set me on this path. This meeting between the burnt charcoal, the chalk in our hands, the TV and the technology, the pixels and the flow of it. And the water, because this was filmed through very slow water.’ 

The car itself has also been subject to paintings, with the exterior decorated with the literature and imagery that inspired Devlin throughout her childhood, including Katsushika Hokusai’s 1831 woodcut The Great Wave off Kanagawa and handwritten extracts from James Joyce’s Ulysses. ‘I was already thinking about painting on the TVs and how I'd create these layers,’ says Devlin. ‘So that's what's painted on the side of the car. They took those paintings and literally translated them into print. In my practice of stage design, we work with models, with miniatures. I thought that [created] quite an interesting relationship between the human and the car. The human is able to hold the [model] car in their hand, able to twist it around and to decide where the paint goes, not being overwhelmed by not being able to see the whole system. That's why I like working with miniatures.’

Inside the car, passengers listen to a conversation between Devlin and the engineers, discussing hydrogen’s awesome potential. ‘It’s the theatre in the back of the car, this conflation between technology and humans, trying to make life for humans actually work. These engineers are the future – they are the ones sitting there coming up with the innovations.’

SURFACING: Visitors can sign up to book their seat at the hourly rituals here. Thursday 13 June - Sunday 16 June 2024, Art Basel in Basel, Hall 1.1, Messeplatz 10, 4005 Basel, Switzerland

Two of Germany’s major players unveiled new concept convertibles this month, undaunted by Europe’s wet weather. A mix of radical intent with a very traditional typology, both the Concept Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed and BMW’s Concept Skytop hint at future production models. 

Concept Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed

First up, the Concept Mercedes-AMG PureSpeed. Mercedes has a long, long history of building both open-topped racing cars and extravagant grand tourers. Billed as the first in the ‘highly exclusive Mythos series,’ a limited run of models developed by the Mercedes-AMG performance subsidiary to tap into this heritage, the PureSpeed is a two seater designed to create a ‘Formula 1 feeling’ for driver and passenger.

Appropriately enough, the car was unveiled ahead of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix (where the factory team took a respectable 5th and 7th place). The most obvious element of the new concept is the absence of roof and windscreen (‘a tribute to motor racing’, something that also defined the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss Speedster from 2009). This has been replaced by a HALO system, the controversial but now critically important F1 car component that surrounds the cockpit to protect the driver. The system requires a helmet to be of any use, and the car will come with two aerodynamically optimised helmets as standard.

Inside, it’s all pretty stripped back, with a custom clock by IWC Schaffhausen taking a prominent spot on the dashboard, and lots of carbon fibre inside and out. The paintwork is graded from ‘Le Mans Red’ to graphite grey, with prominent AMG graphics and a symbolic number 10 logo (harking back to the marque’s victory in the 1924 Targa Florio race in Sicily). Under the lengthy bonnet is AMG’s core powerplant, the twin-turbocharged V8, and there’s also four-wheel drive.

The PureSpeed is based on the Mercedes-AMG SL 63 4Matic+, the high-powered version of the classic roadster. You can expect the production version to come pretty close to this concept, and just 250 examples will be built.

BMW Concept Skytop

Meanwhile, the BMW Concept Skytop was revealed 350km to the north at the Villa d'Este Concors d’Elegance on the shores of Lake Como. This is a very refined and classic synthesis of forms, far, far removed from the deliberately provocative styling BMW was pushing out at the turn of the century. There are historic references here too, although these nod to classic grand tourers, not racing machines.

The key inspirations were the BMW 503 from the late Fifties and the already retro-tinged BMW Z8, penned in 1998 as a homage to the BMW 507. For now, the Skytop is unashamedly a concept study, the kind of flagship model that design departments would dearly love to focus on day in, day out if the everyday reality of auto industry economics didn’t exist.

As a result, the Concept Skytop is all about the glamour, designed to ‘inspire a desire to travel.’ While there’s definitely an affinity between the solid B-pillar of each car, the Skytop makes an explicit reference to BMW’s signature ‘Hofmeister kink’, bolstered by the extremely refined body surfacing (shown here in a muted silver paint scheme that appears to blend into the interior brown leather on the long rear deck).

This is unmistakeably a BMW, bringing together classic proportions with important design elements like the front kidney grille and shark-nosed profile. If anything, it’s a preview of the next-generation 8-Series, a flagship model currently that’s gone aesthetically slightly off the boil and doesn’t really harness any of the company’s innovations in design or drive technology.

There was no engine associated with the concept, but it would be safe to say that any all-new 8-Series would be unlikely to include anything less than a hybrid drivetrain. An electric model would almost certainly rise to the top of the list of most desirable EVs, should it ever appear. 

Mercedes-AMG.com

BMW.co.uk

‘There is something investigatory and playful about motor racing. It’s a form of sport, a form of imagination, a form of creativity. It’s an important place in the imagination. I was fascinated to play in that place,’ says the Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu.

The artist is referring to the latest BMW Art Car, the twentieth (and first ever hybrid model) in the illustrious initiative which began in 1975 when racing driver Hervé Poulain invited his friend, the artist Alexander Calder, to paint a BMW 3.0 CSL which was subsequently raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

The series has since seen work by some of the major names in twentieth and twenty-first century art, including David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Cao Fei and Jeff Koons, with spin-off works and limited editions being added to the mix in recent years. The primary work is always a racing car, and always a one-off.

For this project, Mehretu has transformed the new BMW M Hybrid V8 racecar into a truly dynamic work of art. Her staring point was her monumental painting Everywhen – currently on view at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice as part of the artist’s retrospective – which loosely informed the colour and form vocabulary on the surface of this car.

Everywhen was inspired by a photograph of the events in Washington on 6 January 2021 and the onslaught on Capitol Hill. With her thought processes stirred by the lockdown, Mehretu saw the opportunity of working with a dynamic three-dimensional moving machine as an opportunity to look afresh at the painting. She speaks of her Art Car metaphorically blasting through the painting, breathing in its energy with the idea of blur and the glitch as a symbol of movement and speed.

‘I went to see the race at Daytona, and the experience was overwhelming,’ she says. ‘Conceptually I imagined seeing it go through a painting and I thought of how the car inhales the painting. Then once the car is transported through the portal of the painting it becomes something else. It was an exciting idea to take a painting that exists but remixing it on a car, in ways that means taking some of the painting apart and relaying it on surfaces and in other areas, chopping up elements and mirroring that in different ways.’

The abstract visual forms we see on the car’s surfaces come from digitally altered photographs, which are superimposed in several layers of dot grids, neon-coloured veils and the black markings characteristic of Mehretu’s work. ‘The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the grille ‘kidneys’ of the car inhaled the painting.’ Meanwhile, Mehretu worked with 3D mapping to transfer the motifs to the contours of the car, with its elaborate aerodynamic forms tailored for the Le Mans race.

‘After I saw the car race, what became interesting to me a is how the designers of the car also design the wrap and the way the car appears with the M logo,’ Mehretu continues, ‘So, when the car is still the logo appears totally shattered in red, black, white and blue, and yet when the car moves fast on a track the emblem comes to life.’

Mehretu set out to break this down and do the exact opposite; when the car is moving it is a full blur, but when it comes to a standstill you see the digitisation and animation of the marks and glitch and vibration that contributed to the process, demonstrating that the car itself has had an experience. ‘When in standstill you can see the painting, but when it’s moving, it’s a pure blur where you can see some of the marks in motion.’

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1970, Mehretu moved to the US with her family as a child and now lives and works between New York City and Berlin. Space, movement and energy are central motifs in the artist’s work. Her practice in painting, drawing and printmaking is imbued with socio-political themes, engaging with other artworks, and is in conversation with music, media, and politics.

Mehretu was unanimously selected by an independent jury of international museum directors when the selection process began six years ago. ‘They wholeheartedly embraced Julie,’ says Thomas Girst, global head of cultural engagement at BMW. ‘I remember (Nigerian curator and writer) Okwui Enwezor saying at the time Julie would create a car that translates ‘dynamism within a form’. And that is what she created. To have her be the latest art car artist is an absolute dream come true for me personally. Her car is the greatest edition to the series I could possibly think of.’

The BMW collaboration also includes a joint commitment to a series of PanAfrican Translocal media workshops for filmmakers to tour various African cities in 2025 and 2026, concluding with a major exhibition at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. The overall vision is to provide a forum for artists to develop new pathways towards a just civic future in their respective communities.

Mehretu believes the BMW Art Car is only complete once the Le Mans race is over. ‘The whole project is about invention, about imagination, about pushing limits of what can be possible. I don’t think of this car as something you would exhibit,’ she says. ‘I am thinking of it as something that will race. It’s a performative painting.’ 

She continues, ‘I’m interested in how we experience paintings and visual media, and how they evolve in front of us and have been part of our cultural language for a very long time. This work comes out of my practice but it’s doing something else. It is rethinking. It’s the first time I’ve remixed a painting in this way. I don’t think of it as just a rolling sculpture, or an artwork, but a car that will do a 24-hour race.’

On 15 June BMW Motorsport drivers Sheldon van der Linde (RSA), Robin Frijns (NED) and René Rast (GER) will enter the twentieth BMW Art Car into the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, bearing starting number 20 at the Circuit de la Sarthe. 

For more information on the BMW Art Car Series visit BMW.com

In partnership with BMW

At Cannes International Film Festival 2024, BMW is premiering the BMW XM Mystique Allure, a collaboration of star power, cinematic soundtrack, and state-of-the-art fashion technology. The one-off design is a bold statement of contemporary and progressive luxury, dedicated to supermodel Naomi Campbell.

The first-ever BMW tailored with high-fashion materials and exclusively soundtracked with a Hans Zimmer composition, the vehicle features a Hollywood-meets-haute couture aesthetic inspired by the penchant of Campbell – who also collaborated on a 2023 BMW XM campaign – for violet and deep blue looks. 

Working with Swiss textile manufacturer Jakob Schlaepfer, whose fabrics are used by fashion houses such as Dior and Chanel, the BMW design team translated luxurious fashion materials into an intense, highly saturated Ultramarine tone with a silky matte finish, reminiscent of the BMW ‘Frozen’ colours. They then connected the exterior paintwork scheme to the interior design with saturated velvets and frozen metallic painted sequins, reflecting shades from intense violet to deep ultramarine. 

‘The innovative design does not stop at aesthetics,’ notes Campbell. Since 2021, BMW and Academy Award-winning composer Zimmer have been working together to develop the emotionally moving drive sound for electrified BMW models. Now, Zimmer has also created a suitably alluring campaign soundtrack for the BMW XM Mystique Allure. The project sees BMW continue to expand the sound spectrum for its electric vehicles, with a signature sense of luxury and creativity.  

With the launch of the BMW XM Mystique Allure, BMW reprises its role as official partner at the Cannes International Film Festival. The project, ‘celebrates individuality, creativity, and luxury expression’, says Stefan Ponikva, vice-president BMW Brand Experiences. ‘We’re proud to be unveiling the one-of-a-kind XM at Cannes Film Festival, marking our third consecutive year as an official partner.’

bmwgroup.com

BMW continues its current run of conceptual vehicles with this, the new Vision Neue Klasse X, a taster of what to expect from the company’s next-generation electric SUVs. Following on from last year’s BMW Vision Neue Klasse, the X is brawnier and bolder, and offers a well-resolved preview of how the X5 replacement will look when it is launched in 2025.

BMW Vision Neue Klasse X concept

Unlike its saloon equivalent, which elongated the signature BMW kidney grilles to become the entire front-end treatment of the car, the X retains these vertical elements, albeit toned down a bit from their expression in current models like the BMW iX and BMW i7. The surfacing is also smoother, with more sophisticated transitions between different forms, such as the prominent inverted wheelarches. 

Inside, there’s more asymmetry than ever before, with an offset central screen paired with a ribbon of graphical information running along the base of the windscreen, a featured called BMW Panoramic Vision. A large glazed roof and relatively deep side windows for the sector create an airy spacious interior.

There’s also what BMW is calling the ‘Personal Sound Experience’, operated from the newly introduced ‘HYPERSONX’ steering wheel. Whether this relates to motion sound generated by the car, internal ambient soundscapes, or the presentation of other media isn’t exactly clear just yet. In addition, production versions of the X series will include the latest version of BMW’s 3D Head-Up Display.

This and other digital components of the car will be handled by BMW’s new ‘super brains’, new computing cores that dramatically increase the amount of processing power available. These will also handle elements like driving dynamics and automated driving. Range is increased with new braking systems and tyre designs, while the shift to an 800-volt charging system should allow 300km of range to be added in ten minutes.

In addition to all that, BMW has announced that new EVs will include bidirectional charging, and therefore operate as a mobile power plant when you’re out and about or supplement your home electricity supply (Vehicle to Home) and feedback power into the grid (Vehicle to Grid).

BMW Vision Neue Klasse X, concept only, BMW.com

Overseen by BMW’s head of cultural engagement, Thomas Girst, since 2003, the BMW Art Car series has evolved from cars as canvases to installations and technological experiments. Over half a century, the programme has offered a wildly diverse insight into the relationship between art and industry. 

Against the backdrop of Frieze LA 2024, BMW revealed its latest art-inspired creation, a fusion of ‘art and innovation’ that takes the traditional and graphic art of Esther Mahlangu and injects it into the new BMW i5. Mahlangu, currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Iziko South African Museum, ‘Then I knew I was good at painting: Esther Mahlangu’, was one of the first generation of artists to work on the BMW Art Car Series. 

BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA at Frieze LA 2024

In 1991, the South African artist was invited to transform a BMW 525i, the 12th car in the series. The resulting Art Car – which takes centre stage at the Iziko show – was the inspiration for the unique BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA revealed at Frieze Los Angeles. How this project came about is a fine illustration of the company’s cultural reach, as well as an example of how design, engineering and fine art can sometimes be threaded together in unexpected ways. 

This is the third concept to feature BMW’s colour-changing technology, a process of incorporating e-ink panels into the bodywork of the car as a way of dynamically adjusting the surfaces. 2023’s BMW i Vision Dee concept not only introduced the form language of the next generation 5-Series, but evolved an idea first seen on the 2022 BMW iX Flow concept, a monochrome re-interpretation of the then-new BMW iX electric SUV.

Now the company has taken everything a step further along. Not only does the technology now reside on a production series eighth generation BMW i5 – the first all-electric 5-Series model – but the complexity and sophistication of the e-ink panels has increased hugely. Whereas the iX Flow had 60 ‘segments’ (independent e-ink screens), the i Vision Dee had 240. The new car has no fewer than 1,349, involving a massive increase in the number of controllers and wiring required to hook it all together.

The person responsible for driving the project is engineer Stella Clarke. Setting herself the task of taking BMW’s e-ink research to the next level, the Australian-born Research Engineer reached back into the archives and revisited Mahlangu’s 1990s collaboration as part of a presentation she put together to explore new ideas for the tech. ‘Her art inspired me years ago, back when the concept of colour change on a car was just an idea in my head,’ she says, not expecting to be able to develop the ‘Flow’ technology with such a direct connection to the artist.

Mahlangu’s signature aesthetic has brought traditional Ndebele art to a wider audience, building on its origins as a form of decoration that can be applied to everything from houses to textiles, pots and clothing. The patterns and colours also lent themselves very well to the technical limitations of the Flow technology. Strips of the e-ink film are applied across the cars roof, bonnet and sides, as well in the wheels. Just like in an e-ink tablet, voltage changes allow the colour particles to be rearranged; remove the charge and the patterns stay exactly as they were.

Not only does this system use very little power, but in the i5 Flow NOSTOKANA, it’s been made more robust and durable. Even so, e-ink is still a world away from the traditional pixel – not only does it absorb light rather than emit it, it’s also slow to cycle through the colour changes. Clarke says that the panels have a refresh rate of around 10 seconds, and complex animations were devised to conceal the way the panels gradually change between patterns.

BMW Group's creative director of sound, Renzo Vitale, composed a special soundscape for the official unveiling, using samples of Mahlangu’s voice and feather paint brushes, along with sounds taken from BMW’s own design studio.

The company can’t be drawn on practical applications for what is a fun, dynamic distraction (well suited to the bustling halls of Frieze’s West Coast outing, where the people watching is just as diverting as the art). Holger Hampf, president of Designworks since 2017, admits that ‘it’s fairly inconceivable to wrap an entire car’, and the obvious use cases – dynamic advertising, electronic bumper stickers and go-faster stripes – don’t exactly spark much enthusiasm. Instead, we’re more likely to see subtle aspects of the tech seep into interiors, reflecting the desire for more and more personalisation.

The Flow technology is just one of many avenues explored across BMW’s design division. A quick visit to Designworks, freshly installed in a new studio complex in Santa Monica, gives further insight into the ways in which the company is trying hard to harness emerging technology – most notably AI – with existing methodologies. ‘We’re throwing everything at AI to see what sticks,’ says Hussein Al Attar, the studio's director of Automotive Design. Moving to Santa Monica also places Designworks in the heart of ‘Silicon Beach’, closer to collaborators like Hans Zimmer and digitally-minded artists like Refik Anadol.

As for art, BMW’s involvement has paid more and more attention to the shifting relationship between artists and technology. ‘In the beginning, the cars were painted,’ Girst says simple, explaining that the very first BMW Art Car was Alexander Calder’s BMW 3.0 CSL, commissioned by auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulain for his own attempt at the 1975 Le Mans.

Although Olufar Eliasson’s 2007 BMW H2R was the first Art Car to really push the boundaries of the series, Girst calls it ‘a bit of an outlier.’ Cao Fei’s 2017 Art Car: Unmanned was the first really tech-driven project. Shown alongside John Baldessari’s Art Car #19), Girst cites it as a major step forwards for the way the series integrated art and technology. 

Different artists have had different approaches, and those who have been commissioned to paint an actual race car, like Julie Mehretu’s Art Car #20, due to run the 2024 Le Mans, the only restrictions are weight and aerodynamics. Andy Warhol saw the speed as a challenge, and his 1979 BMW M1 allegedly took just 29 minutes to paint (by hand). Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, and Jeff Koons have all had a go as well, with Koons even being asked back to give the world an art car you could buy, with the 99 examples of the 8 X Jeff Koons.

There’ll only be one NOSTOKANA (the name is derived from Esther Mahlangu’s son). For Mahlangu, now 88 and unable to make the journey to LA to see the car unveiled, the ideas of a car that creates joy is a welcome one. ‘It is fascinating to me to see how modern technology can expand my art and make it accessible to a completely new audience,’ she’s quoted as saying. A car is strange canvas for any artist, and over half a century, BMW has dominated the sphere through its sponsorship and support initiatives. With the Flow concepts, the company has taken the definition of canvas to a whole new level.

BMW.com

See our Frieze LA 2024 guide for what’s on in and around the fair

In 1991, a year following the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, Esther Mahlangu painted the BMW 525i Art Car with her distinctive Ndebele designs and bold colours. She was the first woman, and the first African artist, to contribute to the celebrated project, joining artists from the canon – Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

In the townships, where Mahlangu grew up and lives today, these sportier BMW models were nicknamed ‘Igusheshe’ to roughly mean ‘it grinds’ in Zulu as a note to their distinctive engine note. These fast cars were aspirational products, admired by all and certainly not attainable for most. ‘I painted the car like a wall, and for the Ndebele people, if you begin to paint a wall, it means you’re announcing either a wedding or a celebration,’ recalls Mahlangu.

‘Then I knew I was good at painting: Esther Mahlangu’

The BMW 525i Art Car takes centre stage at ‘Then I knew I was good at painting: Esther Mahlangu’, the artist’s first retrospective, held at the Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town (it’s also referenced in the car maker’s Frieze LA 2024 reveal, the BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA). ‘Back then, to see a BMW painted in Ndebele design was a huge thing for our communities,’ explains the exhibition curator Nontobeko Ntombela. ‘For Mahlangu to have turned this car into her art suddenly highlights these aspirations in ways that co-opt it between the African and Western.’ She believes the Mahlangu BMW Art Car encapsulates the tensions that exist in South Africa – the tensions of the modern and rural, technological and the handmade. 

Mahlangu is a national treasure. Almost 90, with her vibrant traditional Ndebele dress, her presence is as striking as her art. Born in 1935 in Middelburg, in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, her mother and grandmother taught the young Mahlangu the art of Ndebele mural painting. 

Practised by the Ndebele people (primarily based in South Africa and Zimbabwe), Ndebele art is typically hand-painted using natural pigments, with acrylic paints adopted by contemporary artists such as Mahlangu for their wider colour choice and longevity. The vibrant geometric motifs associated with the art are painted on various surfaces, on walls, houses, clothing, pottery and textiles. And they offer both aesthetic and cultural readings with pattern and colour carrying symbolism, often reflecting the cultural identity, social status, and spiritual beliefs within the community. 

‘I would continue to paint on the house when they left for a break. When they came back, they would say: What have you done, child? Never do that again. After that, I started drawing on the back of the house, and slowly, my drawings got better and better until they finally asked me to come back to the front of the house. Then I knew I was good at painting,’ wrote Mahlangu, in a quote that has informed the exhibition title.

Mahlangu’s work is rooted in the centuries-long tradition of Ndebele art, yet hers is a unique approach to colour and shape that flows seamlessly between indigenous designs and contemporary art. She was one of the first to translate the Ndebele style of mural painting to canvas. Chicken feathers are her brushes of choice (although some of her latter wall-size artworks do involve paintbrushes), and instead of making preliminary sketches for her designs, Mahlangu works straight from the imagination. And she refrains from working in a conventional studio, preferring the more modest setting of her hometown, often laying out the canvases on the floor, and employing her family members as studio assistants. 

Mahlangu’s precise geometric shapes and abstract forms are created without the aid of rulers or masking tape, and the thick black lines that are a defining feature of her work echo traditional Ndebele beadwork. There are other signals that set her work apart: motifs of the razorblade for cutting hair appears throughout her work, as do streetlamps, painted at a time when electricity was not available to her community.

‘Seeing these appear in her murals shifts the so-called traditional practice,’ says Ntombela. The curator wanted to capture Mahlangu’s sense of agency, tell her story from her lens: a fearless artist with self-belief at a time when the art world was not open to her. ‘Naming the exhibition after a childhood scenario is important as it is testimony to Mahlangu’s defying spirit and foresight,’ she explains. ‘It is radical that Mahlangu would see herself as an artist when only ten years old, and in the 1940s South Africa. It tells us about her self-belief, how she understood her significance and talent.’

Mahlangu first came to the attention of an international audience in the group show ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ held at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. In Paris, Mahlangu created a reconstruction of her house to demonstrate the possibility of bringing her design onto an artificial surface, as well as transporting her culture into a global context. For the artist, it was, and is, critical to place Ndebele art into the Western art canon as a way of preserving its history. To show the significance of this moment, the Iziko Museums features a scaled-down model of the Pompidou house. 

Most striking, perhaps, are her wall-size canvas works created from the early 1990s, which hang in Iziko Museums’ final gallery. Canvas allowed Mahlangu to explore colour and design in new ways. Crucially, it made it possible for her work to travel and enter private collections, where most of her artwork was sourced for this show. 

Exhibitions of Ndebele art can often be about the collective, leaving out the individual voice. Curator Ntombela, a lecturer at Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg, believes this may explain why South Africa has struggled to show Mahlangu’s work and why her artworks are mainly collected outside of the country. She says there is an interesting relationship between South Africans and Esther Mahlangu. ‘This is a person who is celebrated around the world but we see as doing something that is everyday. In dealing with this I had to do a lot of un-learning and write a story from a contemporary position, and from a different kind of art historical engagement.’

Ntombela believes Mahlangu’s approach shows how indigeneity can lead to generative, expansive and creatively exciting art; how practices of culture can embody a modernist approach and intellectual processes of making. ‘She doesn’t become the sole representative of an otherwise collective or communal culture. Rather, she inhabits a complex nexus between tradition and modernity in all its constant reinterpretations. It is with this unique practice that Mahlangu begins to expand and trouble the canon and its conventions,’ she says.

‘Painting has always been a part of me,’ writes Mahlangu. ‘I cannot separate it from myself, and neither would I want to.’

‘Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu’, supported by the BMW Group, will be at the Iziko Museums of South Africa until 11 August 2024, after which it will begin a global tour, stopping first at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg before moving to the US in early 2026. BMW is working with Esther Mahlangu on a project to be revealed at Frieze LA 2024.

iziko.org.za

The new BMW CE 02 is the second all-electric scooter from the long-established German brand’s motorbike division, positioned as trend-setting urban transport for younger riders. Undercutting the earlier CE 04 scooter in both size and price, the CE 02 is BMW’s lightest and most approachable bike in the range, as we discovered on the international launch in Lisbon.

Designed specifically for everyday life in the city, BMW suggests the eye-catching CE 02 is neither an e-motorbike nor an e-scooter, proudly naming the bike ‘eParkourer’. Marketing terms aside, there is an appealing robustness and playfulness to the CE 02 that is largely absent from any other bike in the segment.

BMW CE 02 in Lisbon: ‘fun transport for the urban jungle’

The bike is a clean-sheet design from BMW, demonstrating an ultra-modern reductive appearance that provides a future-focused impression. Look closer and you’ll discover a steel frame with aluminium single-sided rear swingarm and a mix of oversize and undersize, round and hollow design details that together give the CE 02 a truly unique appeal; this is a bike with real street cred. Painted in black and grey with a mix of matt and high-gloss surfaces, the top-spec Highline model that we sampled introduces a third, more distinctive petrol blue shade.

BMW Motorrad’s head of design Alexander Buckan describes the CE 02 as ‘somehow extraordinary and somehow different to everything we’ve seen so far on our streets’. ‘We believe this little bike is going to open a new chapter for BMW Motorrad,’ he continues. ‘It’s addressed to our youngest customers and that’s why we’ve chosen a new path in terms of the visual appearance of the bike, but we are 100 per cent assured that we’re going to reach all the ages with the CE 02. This is a bike that makes you feel young again.’

Two varying performance versions of the CE 02 are available, and in the UK, both models are suitable for riders with L plates. The entry level 4 kW version is limited to 45 km/h, which meets the requirements of the AM driving licence class. This means it can be ridden in the UK from the age of 16 (14 in some European countries) and by riders who have a car licence. 

Riders aged 17 or over can ride the 11kW version, which is capable of up to 95 km/h, presenting a compelling alternative to traditional 125cc scooters. Both models offer a generous 55 Nm of torque and the 11kW version offers up to 90 km of range. Once plugged in, the 4 kW eParkourer can go from 20 - 80 per cent charge in 85 minutes via a normal household socket. The 11kW model, when used with the optional 1.5 kW quick charger, can charge from 20-80 per cent in 102 minutes.

‘With our youngest customers in mind, our mission was to create a bike that expresses pure fun,’ says Buckan. ‘The CE 02 had to be light, nimble and simple, and provide genuine riding pleasure, intuitiveness and lightheartedness. We concluded that we needed a kind of hybrid; not an e-scooter and not an e-motorbike, so we created what we call the “eParkourer”. Fun transport for the urban jungle. For its aesthetic language, we mixed motorcycle DNA together with BMX bicycle DNA, in an act of neo-constructivism. We blended all these ingredients and the result is the dynamic design of the CE 02.’

The BMX influence can be seen in the wide riser bars, low 750mm seat height and large 14-inch wheels, which add to the CE 02’s playful nature. Highline spec adds gold anodised suspension forks and a triple colour seat into the visual mix. Urban extreme sports have also influenced the design of the seat with its skateboard-inspired form, as well as the front footpegs, which double up as a handy skateboard carrier. Ready for the urban jungle the eParkourer may well be, but there are plenty of practical features, too, such as heated grips, passenger grab handles and full smartphone connectivity with onboard USB charging.

Riding around the streets of Lisbon, the CE 02’s high-quality suspension and low weight play key roles in the experience. Weighing 132kg in 11kW form (the 4kW model weighs just 119kg) and with a well-distributed, low centre of gravity, it is incredibly easy and responsive to ride. The grippy Michelin tyres and well-damped forks do a fine job of dealing with potholed or cobbled streets, allowing you to focus on weaving through traffic and enjoying the youthful handling.

When it comes to enjoying the ride, the CE 02 offers two standard riding modes: 'Flow' and 'Surf', along with the optional 'Flash' mode (standard on the Highline), which offers the most dynamic experience. Your selected riding mode also dictates the amount of recuperation provided by the powertrain. You can easily monitor your chosen mode on a 3.5-inch TFT screen, which also displays crucial information like speed, battery charge status, and range. As for the other controls, throttle and brake feel are impressive for a bike in this category and the rider touchpoints wouldn't look out of place on BMW bikes costing considerably more.

All this upmarket packaging and clever design comes with a price tag that may seem out of place for its intended demographic. In the UK market, the CE 02 is priced at £8,450 for the 11kW version, with an additional £880 required for the Highline upgrade package. While the eParkourer exudes desirability and youthful appeal, its price appears expensive compared to its competitors. Nonetheless, for urban riders seeking an entertaining electric bike that makes a bold statement, the CE 02 remains in a class of its own.

BMW Motorrad CE 02, from £8,450, BMW-Motorrad.co.uk, @BMWMotorradUK

In recent years, shows like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and even Salone del Mobile in Milan have picked up the slack left by the mass abandonment of the traditional global auto show. With design and tech considered to be an integral part of private mobility, the halls at CES 2024 were unsurprisingly alive with new concepts for ways of keeping us safely entertained and informed while driving.

As a result, there was an increased focus on ways in which AI and autonomy could be used to make cargo hauling and deliveries much more efficient. Here are some of the many ways in which AI will find its way into our future dashboards, as well as visions of the cars themselves.

CES 2024: future mobility and AI

Volkswagen makes a date with ChatGPT

Volkswagen was one of several manufacturers making bold claims about how AI integration into future cars is going to reshape the way we use voice recognition and receive information. The company has worked with tech partners Cerence Inc to develop a ‘uniquely intelligent, automotive-grade ChatGPT integration’.

The first cars to use VW’s IDA voice assistant should appear later in 2024, and will include the ID range of electric cars, as well as the latest generation of the Tiguan, Passat and Golf – the GTI Concept of which is shown here. The intention is to imbue cars with the same high-quality of voice recognition as Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant, fine-tuning the system to make it specific to the model, location and context. 

Volkswagen.com

Low-impact logistics with Kia’s PBV System

Kia unleashed a collection of five new electric vehicles, all of which use the same modular system. The Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) debuted as the Concept PV7, PV5 and PV1, with the former and latter representing the largest and smallest manifestation of the approach, and the PV5 represented by three different iterations. All are initially aimed at commercial buyers, with potential applications including robotaxis, last mile delivery and larger logistics operations.

There might also be potential passenger versions further down the line. The simple form language was driven by the need to maximise interior space and access, with lots of bio plastic, paint and recycled fabric, felt and yarns used in the interior.

Kia.com

Hyundai gets ever closer to take-off

Kia’s parent company Hyundai also had news, leading with the debut of the latest iteration of its proposed eVTOL craft, the Supernall S-A2. This five-seater (pilot plus four passengers) is part of an ongoing programme to reshape all aspects of urban mobility and find a reliable, efficient and safe replacement for the conventional helicopter.

The company also made some major strategic tech announcements. Chief amongst them was the news that Hyundai – a multinational conglomerate capable of building everything from elevators to oil tankers – is developing large-scale green hydrogen production methods, as well as ways to ‘transform environmental pollutants into clean hydrogen’. 

Hyundai also launched its ‘Software-defined Everything’ (SDx) strategy, effectively detaching software development from automotive hardware to allow each to be independently updated. Naturally, AI plays a role, with the company’s own Large Language Model (LLM) forming the basis of a new in-car assistant and navigation system, as well as open-source kits for third-party apps. 

Hyundai.com

Re-setting the EV with Honda’s 0 Series concepts

The art of the concept car was alive and well on the Honda stand with the announcement of a new ‘0 Series’ of electric cars to be sold around the world. The first Honda 0 Series models will go on sale in North America in 2026 and were previewed here by two concepts, the elegant Saloon and Space-Hub. The latter is a spacious people mover, with a fashion lounge-style interior, while the Saloon is especially sleek machine that promises to blend an ultra-efficient electric powertrain with exceptional efficiency.

The core values are ‘Thin, Light and Wise’, indicating that more manageable EVs are finally coming down the pipeline – a fitting approach for the ‘zero’ reset these cars represent. The company also debuted a new logo, or ‘H’ mark, for the first time since 1981. Besides their genuinely appealing looks, the two concepts should integrate Honda’s sophisticated automated driving system (available in the second half of the decade) and have long-life batteries thanks to sophisticated software management. 

When the Space-Hub finally makes it to production, expect the stark minimalism of the interior to be toned down somewhat, although there’ll still be generous and configurable space. More dubiously, Honda says that the 0 Series will use AI and big data to ‘learn the user’s preferences, such as music, as well as a driver’s behaviours and tendencies while driving, and … make various suggestions’. Modern cars that know you well are an inevitable sign of things to come. 

0.Honda

Music and more from Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz unveiled a clutch of innovations at CES 2024, starting with the announcement of a new, AI-powered virtual assistant. The company is making much of the power of its new user interface, which will debut in this year’s new CLA model (based on last year’s CLA Concept). The MB.OS infotainment system is an evolution of the dashboard-wide screens that arrived with the company’s first EQ models a couple of years ago, only now they have a generative AI assistant that’s said to offer a ‘hyper-personalised user experience’. No longer will you endlessly have to repeat ‘Hey Mercedes’ to get the car to do a simple task.

Mercedes also unveiled a collaboration with Will.i.am, having invited the musician and occasional tech entrepreneur to create something a little different for the Mercedes-AMG performance sub-brand. Sound Drive is the result, an interactive instrument that uses sensors and software to ‘turn the car into an instrument’. Think of it as an evolution of the endlessly generative music originally developed for video games, making it one more step along the road to the gamification of travel. 

Mercedes-Benz.com

BMW introduces a world of in-car entertainment

BMW hopes that the ninth iteration of its in-car Operating System will have as much impact as the original iDrive did when it was introduced back in 2001. BMW OS9 is yet another implementation of a large language model (LLM) in an automotive context, although BMW has gone straight to the top with the use of Alexa’s LLM. Other new features include the future AR Ride, an augmented reality-based navigation system (developed with XREAL) that overlays navigation content onto the driver’s AR glasses.

In addition, there was the introduction of BMW Digital Premium, essentially giving passenger’s access to third party apps like music, audio and gaming (the latter using regular gaming controllers) – all of which will be a boon for anyone lucky enough to use the massive rear screen in the back of the BMW i7. Finally, a very American application for computer-controlled driving tech was also on display; remote control valet parking. 

BMW.com

Sony Honda Mobility update the Afeela EV

In 2023, a surprise hook-up was unveiled in the form of Sony-Honda Mobility. The new company showed off its first product, the Afeela, with no hint of any production viability or timescale. The Afeela was back for CES 2024, suitably upgraded with fresh collaborations with Qualcomm (for computing power) and Microsoft (for, you guessed it, AI integration).

All this silicon is intended to give the car more of a personality and purpose, with screens and sensors aplenty. There are no distinct visual changes – the Afeela is still an elegant, smooth super saloon – but plenty of questions about how well the worlds of big data and big mobility are going to play together when the time comes, and what it means for the humble consumer who just wants to go from A to B with minimum fuss. 

SHM-Afeela.com

Harman shakes up screen design 

American car component manufacturer Harman (owned by Samsung since 2017) used the show to highlight innovations in interior design and information screens. The company’s new Ready Display is available in a number of different sizes, including a curved format, and uses Samsung’s Neo QLED technology for high res, rich colour graphics. It also showed the SeatSonic system, a way of integrating audio into the structure of a seat to enhance the listening experience. 

Car.Harman.com

Bosch and Amazon unite to fight inefficiency

In yet another example of a technological innovation that generates more questions than answers, industry super supplier Bosch announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services to track drivers' eye movements in order to predict and pre-empt their needs. 

The system could well be another example of Amazon’s habit of trialling labour-saving devices on its long-suffering workforce, as the first customers are predicted to be its own fleet of delivery drivers. Some of the proffered stats are alarming – in Bosch’s native Germany, ‘more than 150 million [cargo vehicle] trips are empty runs, which adds up to more than 6.5 billion empty kilometres annually, or more than 160,000 unnecessary journeys around the Earth.’

Amazon is certainly making a dent in these figures with its ongoing partnership with Rivian; the company now has 10,000 of the unique EV vans on its US fleet, with a commitment to electrify its entire delivery fleet of 100,00 vehicles by 2030. Germany is the most recent market to receive these machines, designed specifically for Amazon by the Californian EV maker. Rivian, best known for its R1T pick-up truck, is now offering the bespoke EV van to all buyers as the Rivian Commercial Van.  

Bosch-Mobility.com, AboutAmazon.com, Rivian.com

This round-up of 24 transportation design innovations for 2024 is driven by curiosity rather than any attempt to be comprehensive. The following machines – whether wheeled, winged or just seats or buildings – are all dedicated to making mobility just a little bit easier, more elegant and, hopefully, more efficient. Some are practically in the bag, while others may be subject to slight delays. Read on to discover some of the many ways we’re hoping to get around this year.

Transportation design innovations to expect this year

Lotus Emeya

Lotus’ Eletre SUV was a hugely credible start to the company’s latest revival. 2024 will see the launch of the Lotus Emeya, a four-door sports EV that’s aimed squarely at the current market leader the Porsche Taycan. Sharper styling, innovative tech and graphics and sharp handling are all promised. 

LotusCars.com

Porsche Panamera 

The latest version of Porsche’s mighty Panamera amps up the electrical content for more range and performance, all the while refining the design of the company’s original four-door sporting GT. The outgoing generation was one of our favourite fast four-doors, and the new model looks set to exceed it in every respect. 

Porsche.com

Volkswagen ID.7

Another big saloon, albeit cut from a slightly less sporting mould, Volkswagen ID.7 is the latest model in its all-electric line-up. With a projected range of around 384 miles, the ID.7 is set to be one of the longest-legged EVs to debut this year. 

Volkswagen.co.uk

BMW i5 Touring

BMW’s i5 Touring is the first application of electrification to the company’s traditionally styled estate cars. While estates have been overlooked for too long in favour of SUVs, there’s also an EV estate on the way from Audi, signalling a slight but significant shift in the scale of aspirational cars. 

BMW.co.uk

Hyundai Ioniq 7

Previewed by the Ioniq Concept ‘Seven’ from 2021 (shown here), the forthcoming Ioniq 7 is pitched as the Korean company’s flagship SUV model. Closely related to Kia’s EV9, the Ioniq 7 will be spacious and flexible, as well as distinctively designed.  

Hyundai.co.uk

Cupra Tavascan

Cupra is ploughing ahead with its conversion to a pure EV company. Next up is the Tavascan, a fast-back compact SUV that’s the most coherent representation to date of the Spanish company’s strangely gothic form language. 

CupraOfficial.co.uk

MG Cyberster

As the first electric convertible sportscar to market, the Cyberster is going to attract a lot of attention. Considerably larger than the compact MGs of old, the Chinese-owned brand is still hoping to capture some of their original magic. 

MG.co.uk

Polestar 4

Polestar previews its products well ahead of time, so the shape and style of the 4 is no surprise. Following on from the Polestar 3, an SUV, the Polestar 4 is an SUV coupé, a crucial stylistic distinction that gives this car an elegant silhouette. 

Polestar.com

Volvo EX90

Also incoming from Sweden is the new Volvo EX90, a seven-seater SUV that looks set to embody all the archetypal Volvo qualities – safety, practicality, steadfast style – in an all-electric package.  

VolvoCars.com

Fiat 600e

The upcoming Fiat 600e is much more than an upscaled 500e. Sharing a platform with Jeep’s accomplished Avenger, this modestly sized EV uses Fiat’s friendly design DNA for a more practical everyday proposition. 

Fiat.co.uk

Citroën ë-C3

Billed as the first ‘affordable European electric car’, the Citroën ë-C3 channels the spirit of its stripped-down Ami microcar and Oli concept. With an upright stance, simplified visual language and sub €25k price, the company is positioning this as a 2CV for the 21st century. 

Citroen.co.uk

New Mini EVs

The electrification of Mini gathers pace in 2024 with electric versions of the Mini Countryman and Cooper on the way, along with the Aceman crossover SUV. 

Mini.co.uk

Volocopter Air Taxi

While all the four-wheeled debuts are signposted way in advance, innovations in aerial transport rarely commit to fixed timescales. Air taxi start-up Volocopter has vouched to have a service up and running for this summer's Paris Olympics; will this prove over-ambitious? 

Volocopter.com

CityAirbus NextGen

Airbus Industry’s CityAirbus NextGen is still very much a prototype machine, but 2024 should see this all-electric, four-seater eVTOL aircraft take its first flight. The eVTOL market is crowded with concepts but the backing of Europe’s largest aeronautics company makes this one to watch. 

Airbus.com

Wisk Aero

US air taxi developer Wisk Aero is assembling the production prototype of its sixth-generation aircraft in California with a view to flying the fully autonomous four-seater craft sometime this year. Wisk’s strategy of skipping human pilots altogether is markedly different from potential competitors. 

Wisk.aero

Hill Helicopters HX50

Compared to the futuristic forms proposed by the eVTOL companies, Hill Helicopters is somewhat conventional. Building a traditional rotorcraft from scratch is still a tall order, and the UK-based is focusing on first-time buyers with its sleekly designed five-seater.

HillHelicopters.com

Passenger Terminal, Mumbai

Also coming online late this year are the passenger terminals and control tower at Mumbai’s new D.B. Patil International Airport. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects in the firm’s characteristic expressive modernist style, the pavilion-like terminals will be surrounded by lakes and feature voluminous curved roofs. 

NMIAirport.co.in

LAX APM System

Although mass transit and the United States go together like oil and water, Los Angeles Airport has made an effort with its new automated people mover (APM) system. Linking LAX’s terminals with transport nodes outside the airport itself is a start, but in a country where Disney World’s monorail system is allegedly the 9th largest mass transit system, don’t expect any Elizabeth Line-style grand gestures.

LAWA.org

Lufthansa Allegris seating

Lufthansa passengers will finally get an uplift in every class in 2024, as the company rolls out its long-awaited new Allegris seating systems. First and Business Class customers flying the airline’s newest A350 and 787 will get the upgrade this summer. 

Lufthansa.com

Air New Zealand Skynest

Air New Zealand runs some of the longest-haul routes in the world. To make the journey fly by, the company is rolling out its innovative Skynest bunks for passengers flying to New York and Chicago, both 15-plus-hour routes. The pod-like system, designed by Kate Cameron-Donald and Zoe Wenn, offers six bunks that can be pre-booked for a chunk of in-flight sleep.

AirNewZealand.com

Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air

We’ve already previewed the sleek Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air electric speedboat, a collaboration between the sports car maker and the historic Austrian boatbuilder. This year will see first customer deliveries of this super watercraft. 

FrauscherxPorsche.com

Blue Innovations Group R30

Another electric boat to watch out for is BIG’s R30. A 30ft cabin cruiser, the R30 is designed for the big time, pitched at pleasure boat users seeking a multifunctional vessel with zero emissions, with a flexible interior and deck configuration. On-board solar helps top up the battery. 

BlueInnovationGroup.com

BMW Motorrad CE 02

Following on from the launch of the CE 04, BMW Motorrad is branching out with another electric scooter, the CE 02. With a chunkier, more stripped-back style, this is a bike aimed at riders of every ability. 

BMW-Motorrad.co.uk

Stilride 1

Stilride’s debut electric scooter is diametrically different in style to BMW’s offering, with an expressive body formed from origami-inspired bent steel. The Swedish company says the Stilride 1 will get around 120km of range, while its clever construction saves material, waste and labour. 

Stilride.com

Even though this new publication on the art and design of BMW runs to three volumes, one gets the sense it could have been much longer. Over 80 years, BMW has often taken an idiosyncratic design path, swinging between smooth, sober Germanic perfectionism and a raucous, almost anti-aesthetic and confrontational approach, like the recent i Vision Dee, with its polychrome E Ink body panels.  

BMW: Behind the Scenes tells this story. The first volume, BMW by Design – which is also available as a standalone book – presents a richly illustrated overview of the company, from the icons of the 1970s and 1980s through to the very latest concepts like the BMW Vision Neue Klasse. 

BMW: Behind the Scenes

The author, Steve Saxty, was given unprecedented access to BMW’s archives, and worked hand in hand with Adrian van Hooydonk, head of BMW Group Design, to get the story. The company has always prioritised the concept car as a way of exploring new forms and ideas, often going off on extremely unconventional tangents, such as Chris Bangle’s Gina Light Visionary Model, a flexi-skinned roadster only revealed in 2008, seven years after development started, Olafur Eliasson’s 2007 BMW H2R Art Car and the BMW Garmisch, a loving recreation of the 1970 Geneva Motor Show by Marcello Gandini.

Some of the most fascinating chapters of the history of car design are the creations that never saw the light of day, deemed too unorthodox, uneconomical or simply unbuildable to put before a paying public. For the most part, these sketches, renders, models and occasional full-size mock-ups stay hidden in the archives – if they’re not destroyed – and only sneak out long after the fact. Porsche recently dipped into its shadowy past with great success with the book Unseen Porsche and now it’s BMW’s turn. 

The second volume of the trio, BMW’s Hidden Gems, includes some of these unseen gems, many of which were given to Saxty by the French car designer Paul Bracq, who oversaw BMW design in the early 1970s.

The final volume, BMW Art by Design, focuses on the drawings and renderings that deserve special attention, often created during the design development process or for publicity purposes. Finishing off the set are art prints of 18 of these renderings, with the three volumes presented in a cloth-bound slipcase. 

The book is a true labour of love, covering 570 pages across three volumes and requiring over 100 interviews. ‘We wanted to capture the very spirit inside the BMW Group design team, our way of working and thinking, the passion, the risk-taking, and the tremendous dedication, time and energy our people expend,’ Adrian van Hooydonk says. ‘I think the result will provide readers with a glimpse of BMW’s future rather than just its past.’

The three volume set of BMW: Behind the scenes is available to pre-order from SteveSaxty.com, £244.95

At Art Basel Miami Beach 2023, the artist Alex Israel (a former Wallpaper* Design Awards judge) has partnered with BMW to create an AI-powered, participatory and interactive video installation that guides visitors on a personalised journey through their memories in an ingenious fusion of art and technology. Titled REMEMBR, Israel’s installation takes inspiration from the new 100 per cent electric BMW i5, which uses AI to power a curved display that provides driving data and infotainment on the dashboard in response to the driver’s inputs.

In Israel’s hands, the same technology has been harnessed to develop a proprietary app that filters photographs and videos from the participant’s phone and then beams them onto seven custom-designed screens surrounding the installation. Set to a sun-drenched, specially composed electronic soundtrack, this display collates memorable moments – sunsets, mountain views, birthday parties, selfies, gatherings with friends and concert visits – while leaving the screenshots and other undesirables out of the mix.

‘I was really interested in doing a project with artificial intelligence. I was trying to figure it out, talking to a lot of people and then I got a call from BMW,’ Israel recalls at the opening of the installation. ‘I went to Munich and met with the head designer, Domagoj Dukec, and he showed me the i5 and there are a lot of things about the car that I really aligned with. When you’re in the car, you can select from a series of atmospheric environmental modes. When you pick one of these modes, all the colours in the car change, and they’re meant to elevate your mood and enhance your experience. So BMW and I see eye to eye with this, that colour can enhance and change your mood and your vibe.’

He continues, ‘The second thing was there were all these different things that AI was doing in the car. One example that I found interesting was that if you’re texting and driving, the AI tells you to stop. There are ways in which it helps you and makes your experience better. The technology in the car is really advanced and it's designed to merge man and machine into a closer connected unit and that’s interesting to me. 

‘We’re all experiencing it with our phones. My phone is an external memory bank for my brain, specifically when it comes to pictures and videos. I always wonder if I will ever go and look at all of them again – probably not, but I keep taking them, recording and documenting everything that I do. And so I [wanted to find] a way [that you could] go through all these pictures and look at your life that wasn’t totally tedious and was a little bit entertaining and fun. REMEMBR asks: what if we could revisit and share all these memories in an engaging way?’

The result is a vulnerable and at-times nail biting two-minute video clip that has been aptly choreographed to capture life’s buoyant, pensive and silly moments. Located in the Collectors’ Lounge of Art Basel Miami Beach, for which BMW continues to serve as an official partner, Israel’s installation not only expresses the cultural zeitgeist, but also our developing relationship with technology itself. 

Dukec, BMW’s head of design, says, ‘Alex’s fascination with our latest innovation mirrors our shared commitment to blending the worlds of technology, design and art to pursue something truly extraordinary. The BMW i5 is a vehicle that not only moves you physically but emotionally and imaginatively, much like Alex's art.’

artbasel.com

For more on Art Basel Miami Beach, read our Miami Art Week 2023 guide.

Curator Marianne Derrien recalls exploring the Camargue years ago and having the instinct that the changing landscape would lead to a collaboration with her long-time friend, the artist Eva Nielsen. What would come to fruition is ‘Insolare’ – now showing at Paris Photo 2023, 9-12 November – a dynamic exploration of our impact on the landscape through a hybridised approach, creating an emotive reflection on the disappearance of urban, industrial and natural landscapes.

Eva Nielsen’s ‘Insolare’ at Paris Photo 2023

The works were conceived with the BMW Art Makers programme, which each year supports the creation of an experimental visual arts project in response to current social and environmental issues. First exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles earlier this year, fittingly the exhibition has been designed to ensure that materials are produced and used as sparingly as possible as the show is reinterpreted for the Paris Photo context.

To walk through the installation is to move between the environmental layers Nielsen and Derrien have created. ‘Insolare’s layers exist within the artworks as Nielson overlays images of mosquito nets with overviews of the Camargue’s geography and its architecture; layers exist within the installation too, as some works are sheer, others latex, some shine, and others appear to absorb the light through their abstracted forms. As these layers overlap and connect in their metal framework, the incredible complexity of loss in nature is referenced.

Nielsen’s dusty bluish greens and rich yellows are reminiscent of many past artists that have been drawn to the Camargue, including Vincent Van Gogh, and serve as a tie to the past while remaining current in the message of environmental concern. Also important is that ‘sedimation’ is recognised as significant for both artist and curator, reflecting their grounding intentions and deep intuitive connection to the land.

Nielsen describes the sense of walking and feeling absorbed into the landscape, explaining that the link to ecofeminism’s intuitive and non-dominating perspective is present as the works travel ‘with’ the land.

Other must-sees at Paris Photo 2023 include Webber Gallery’s curation of 12 incredible artists; Fellowship's fluid redefinition of the boundaries of image-making and AI; and Offprint showcasing a dizzying number of publishers in the fields of art, architecture, design, humanities and visual culture.

parisphoto.com

So you want to be an Instagram star? Consider investing in a vintage Fiat 500 Jolly beach car. An adorable sky-blue model from 1959, with wicker seats and an open roof, went up for auction at this year’s Zoute Sale in Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Prior to the sale, it took a few last trips through town, as delighted bystanders smiled, waved, and snapped photos galore.

The beach community known as Knokke Le Zoute was having one of the year’s busiest weekends, thanks to the annual Zoute Grand Prix, a four-day high-end car, art, and lifestyle festival in early October that includes a BonhamsCars auction of vintage and classic cars, an exhibition of new top-of-the-line contemporary cars, a three-day classic car rally, and a GT tour.

Buckle up for the Zoute Grand Prix

The Fiat Jolly had competition for attention – seemingly every other car on the road that weekend was a collector’s item, and the quiet atmosphere was punctuated by the muscular growl of revving engines. At the luxury La Réserve hotel, teenage boys, ‘car spotters’, circled the parking lot, cameras in hand. A particularly excited group gathered to photograph a Bugatti Chiron with German plates. One spotter, from Luxembourg, explained that an alert about the car had gone out on social media. ‘You don’t see many like this,’ he said, kissing his fingers appreciatively.

But fine cars are never an unusual sight here; even a young woman working in the hotel lobby pulled out her phone to show off her family’s two Porsches. Asked whether anyone here drives a Subaru, she just laughed. ‘This is Knokke.’

Commonly referred to as Belgium’s Saint-Tropez, Knokke-Heist was settled at the beginning of the 20th century by three families who catered to British tourists by building a golf course, tennis courts, stables, and white villas with red tile roofs. 

Today, Knokke counts 33,000 inhabitants and 110,000 owners of second homes. Name a monarch or billionaire, and he (or she) is probably here. People are drawn not only by the favourable tax code, but also by 11km of sandy beach, high-end shopping, Michelin-starred restaurants, and a thriving art scene. The town’s art deco casino boasts an astonishing 360-degree mural by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte, measuring 70m wide by 7m tall (soon to be restored as part of a major facelift by TAB Architects and Barozzi Veiga).

The town contains 90 art galleries in just two square kilometres. Perhaps its most prestigious dealer is Guy Pieters, the Belgian son of a house painter who opened his first gallery in Knokke in 1981, knowing he would find collectors nearby. One of his longtime artists is Wolfgang Volz, Christo’s exclusive photographer, who was in town to show his photos of the wrapped Arc de Triomphe. ‘I didn’t know how to spell Knokke,’ said Volz. ‘Now I’ve had about five solo exhibitions here.’

Another artist in Knokke for the weekend was Princess Delphine of Belgium, only recently recognised as part of the royal family after her father, King Albert II, was obliged by the courts to take a DNA test. She drove the last leg of the auto rally in a BMW 507 roadster (lent by BMW from its heritage fleet), just like the one Elvis Presley acquired when doing his military service in Germany. 

Female drivers were definitely a minority in the Zoute Rally, which attracted 250 historic cars and typically has a waiting list. A woman named Patricia, from Antwerp, took the wheel of a red 1963 Jaguar E-Type, while her male partner navigated. When asked why she got to drive, she smiled: ‘Because it’s my car.’

The Zoute Grand Prix was founded in 2010 by two brothers, Filip and David Bourgoo, who owned an Audi-Bentley dealership. Believing that motor shows had grown too big and no longer attracted the right people, they displayed a new car in central Knokke, in front of the Louis Vuitton boutique. Sensing an opportunity, Ferrari asked them to build a marquee for its new products. Other brands followed. ‘Ten years ago, we had to beg to sell cars in Knokke,’ said Filip. ‘Now they’re queuing.’

Collector’s items, contemporary and classic

Visitors paid €75 for a ticket to enter the Grand Prix’s two beachside pavilions. In the Prado Zoute pavilion, 21 car manufacturers showed their latest models, from the Lamborghini Revuelto to the Ferrari Purosangue four-seater. Around half were electric. The car drawing the biggest crowds was the fully electric Rolls-Royce Spectre that customers had just started receiving that very week. The beautiful beast weighed 3 tonnes, with a choice of 44,000 paint colours, and a price tag of €525,000. Product expert Ed Drake said that the car’s bespoke road sound (to alert pedestrians to its presence) was recorded by an orchestra imitating the sound of a Rolls-Royce accelerating.  

Tucked away among the collector cars was the new Rimac Nevera, the young Croatian brand’s first commercial automobile, which has set the record as the world’s fastest electric production car: 0-100 km/h in 1.81 seconds. Brand manager Bernard Van Bellingen said they sold one car this year – a special version, to a buyer in Belgium, for €2.4 million – and that the year’s second sale ‘will arrive’.

There are cars that people drive, and those that sit pretty. The latter, 96 collector cars, were on display in the Zoute Gallery pavilion. Many had barely ever touched asphalt. All of them hit the block on Sunday at BonhamsCars’ tenth annual Zoute Sale, which has quickly become one of the world’s most important auctions of rare collection cars. Ruinart Champagne flowed freely, poured by servers in Magritte-inspired bowler hats. 

Several cars (notably supercars and hypercars), sold for close to one million euros or more, receiving audience applause each time they hit the milestone. An immaculate 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder with less than 400km on the odometer doubled its bottom estimate to reach €1.2 million. ‘Who woulda thought?’ said the auctioneer, Maarten ten Holder, managing director of BonhamsCars, as it blew past one million.

Surprising rarities included a 1997 SAAB EX prototype, a one-of-a-kind car made for the company’s 50th anniversary. A collection of eight different Aston Martins from 2010 were all painted the same tangerine orange colour – a special request by the original owner. A 1956 Bentley S-Type Continental was formerly driven by Helmut Newton. And a 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante once cradled J.Lo’s bottom in her ‘Love Don’t Cost a Thing’ music video. Love may be cheap, but this car ended up being a steal at just over €40,000.

The star of the sale was a stunning beige 1959 Ferrari 250 GT ‘Tour de France’ with all original parts, owned for 37 years by Swiss racing driver Plinio Haas. It went for slightly below its estimate, €4.83 million (including premium), to a North American client, pushing the day’s total sales to more than €27 million, a record for BonhamsCars.

And the little blue Fiat Jolly? After a round of lively bidding, it sold for an impressive €155,250 to a bidder from the United Arab Emirates.

Zoute Grand Prix, ZouteGrandPrix.be, Cars.Bonhams.com

One of the stars of this year’s IAA Mobility International Motor Show in Munich, BMW’s Vision Neue Klasse is a bold statement of the future of what was once the company’s core segment, the traditional saloon car. Once dominant, the ‘three box’ saloon’s popularity has been steadily eroded by the relentless rise of SUVs.

Vision Neue Klasse is a bold attempt to right the ship and give modern form to the visionary, forward-looking forms assembled by the likes of Wilhelm Hofmeister back in the 1960s and 1970s. ‘The design of the Neue Klasse is typically BMW and so progressive it looks like we skipped a model generation,’ says the current head of BMW Group Design, Adrian van Hooydonk.

The Vision car is a concept only, and BMW’s show cars are invariably a few steps removed from the resulting production model. That said, there’s nothing about this handsomely minimal machine that couldn’t be manufactured, and elements like the use of secondary raw materials and full electric power are pretty much standard features already.

The concept is also notable for its emphasis on key BMW design elements like the so-called ‘Hofmeister kink’, the curve on the C-pillar that has been an integral part of practically every BMW for half a century. It also presents a more coherent BMW kidney grille, bleeding the form into the full width of the frontal area, with integrated headlights and a pronounced central division.

The company stresses that every facet of this concept represents a sizeable advance, including ‘30 per cent more range, 30 per cent faster charging, [and] 25 per cent more efficiency’. Inside, there’s a new generation of BMW’s pioneering iDrive HMI working in harmony with ‘BMW Panoramic Vision’, a head-up display system that projects information across the entire width of the windscreen.

Elsewhere, the cabin is finished in typically minimal concept style, with yellow corduroy making a welcome change from traditional interior. The company notes that the absence of decorative leather and chrome is another obvious way of keeping the car’s carbon footprint as low as possible.

Why is this concept important? After squandering its impressive lead in electrification to its rivals, BMW knows it needs to re-set its EV strategy and ensure that manufacturing and innovation are perfectly aligned with a new design vision. This car points the way to next-generation mobility; expect elements of the Vision Neue Klasse to creep into BMW’s production vehicles over the next two to three years.

More information at BMW.co.uk

You don’t hear much about armoured cars anymore. Perhaps it’s because those who genuinely need rolling resistance to any eventuality have finally decided to keep it quiet, or that there’s been a drop-off in desire for cars that have been kitted out to survive the threats posed by invasion, insurrection, revolution, riot, coup, and assassination. 

Most luxury car makers can bolster the basic protection offered by their premium models, or at least they’ll know someone who can. It makes more and more sense to keep this kind of knowledge in house, for both commercial and security reasons. BMW has offered its Protection series of subtly but seriously enhanced production models for over four decades, but this is the first time that an electric car has been given the treatment. 

BMW i7 Protection: an armoured sanctuary of an EV

The i7 Protection takes the standard BMW i7 and transforms it into an armoured sanctuary that’ll shrug off attacks from firearms and even explosions. It provides what those in know call VR9 protection, a scale created by Germany’s Vereinigung der Prüfstellen für Angriffshemmende Materialien und Konstruktionen (Association of Test Laboratories for Attack-Resistant Materials and Constructions, or VPAM). To achieve this resistance, the car’s bodyshell has to be strengthened, along with thick blast- and bullet-resistant glass.  

This kind of ‘Protection Core’ is understandably heavy. Layers of armour steel are incorporated into the doors, roof and underbody – with the latter vital in an age of roadside bombs. The possibility of drone attacks has also been considered. All this weight has been offset by revised suspension and both the electric i7 and ICE 7-Series are still quick off the line (although interestingly, the ICE car is quicker in every respect) for fast getaways. Specially developed Michelin PAX run-flat tyres can be used at speeds of up to 50mph even when ‘flat’. 

Both models include the highest spec equipment, such as an all-around sensor and camera package and Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System, while there are also standard motorised doors. Extras include massage seats – useful to soothe away the angst generated by constant, imminent threat – and a rear-seat cool box to store a calming tipple.

Security-specific options include an integrated dedicated radio transceiver, fresh-air supply system and inbuilt fire extinguishers system, as well as all the accoutrements of official duty, such as flashing lights and flag poles. First deliveries of the BMW i7 Protection are expected in December 2023 – you can expect the base price of the regular car to be doubled at the very least. 

BMW i7 Protection, price on request, BMW-Special-Sales.com

Julie Mehretu has been announced as the creator of the 20th BMW Art Car. BMW’s Art Car Collection is the stuff of corporate legend, a cohesive, credible and widely admired pairing of contemporary artists given free rein to treat a BMW (preferably a racing one) as a canvas. 

Starting with Alexander Calder’s BMW 3.0 CSL in 1975, on the urging of his friend, the auctioneer and racing driver Hervé Poulain, the series has included works by Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Esther Mahlangu, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Olafur Eliasson, Cao Fei and Jeff Koons, who also went on to create a limited edition BMW 8-Series. Overseen for 20 years by Thomas Girst, each new commission is given suitably elevated prominence in the art world.  

Julie Mehretu is no different, with the announcement taking place at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. Mehretu was chosen by an international jury of museum directors and curators; her canvas will be the BMW M Hybrid V8, shown here in raw carbon fibre. 

Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1970, and her family moved to America in 1977. After studying at Kalamazoo College, Michigan, and the Rhode Island School of Design, Mehretu has used her work to explore psychogeography and the lived experience of space, building up a rich body of paintings, prints and drawings (see our 2021 interview with Mehretu, ahead of her exhibition at the Whitney). 

In addition to the creation of the livery for the 2024 Le Mans car, Mehretu’s appointment will include the establishment of artistic workshops across Africa in 2025. The Translocal Media Workshop Series, devised in collaboration with the Emmy-nominated producer and writer Mehret Mandefro, will see the creation of spaces for artists to meet, exchange, and collaborate in trans-local ways. The series will culminate in an exhibition at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in 2025, including the 20th BMW Art Car.

BMW.com, BMW Art Cars at BMW Welt

There are plenty of ways that the most plutocratic of automobiles can signal their emphasis on the driven, not the driver. There’s the division screen, of course (a Rolls-Royce favourite), as well as the sumptuous, first class-style reclining chairs that set Maybachs and Bentleys apart from the ‘standard’ bench seat. The new BMW i7 has neither of these. Instead, it has the largest rear screen ever installed in a production car. 

The BMW i7 marks another premiere for the Bavarian car builder. It’s the first time an all-electric powertrain has gone into a traditional saloon-style body. Up to this point, BMW has focused on electric SUVs, as well as the i4 ‘Gran Coupé’. The i7 won’t hold this distinction for long, as the new i5 saloon has just been announced. 

The 7-Series is the brand’s traditional flagship, first introduced in 1977. A rival for Mercedes’ well-established S-Class the 7-Series followed the same top-down technological flow; any innovations make their debut in these prominent models before gradually percolating through the range. In BMW’s case, that first ever 7-Series included such exotic items as an onboard computer, anti-lock brakes, and even a dictaphone. 

Seven generations later and the big 7 has reached a fork in the road. Just like Mercedes, which is hedging its bets between a hybridised S-Class and the all-electric EQS, BMW believes that the time isn’t quite right for the chauffeured classes to go all-electric, all at once. Unlike Mercedes, BMW is building the i7 alongside an almost identical ‘regular’ hybrid car. 

Despite converging EV and ICE styling, it pains us to report that the i7 is not a thing of great beauty, even (especially?) with its optional two-tone paintwork. BMW design can make a virtue out of brutishness, a strategy that sometimes pays off in the long run as tastes change and the avant-garde bubbles up into the mainstream. Yet where the i3 and i8 combined asymmetric forms and unconventional panel alignments to great effect, more recent models have struggled with the blend of esoteric detailing and conventional proportions. 

On the other hand, BMW’s current approach to interiors is far more satisfactory, even if there are still too few physical buttons for our tastes. There’s an emphasis on pattern and texture, with everything from fascia inlays to speaker grilles creating an interesting and unusual surface, while the lighting and materials (premium cloth is available as an alternative to leather) setting up a warm and cosseting interior that doesn’t feel too dominated by screens. 

Electronics are still doing a lot of the heavy lifting, particularly in the plethora of lighting modes that give the interior what BMW calls a ‘luxurious lounge atmosphere’. In practice, this means swirly graphics on the central screen, soft ambient tones and hidden LEDs casting a variety of hues from behind and beneath practically every surface, from the crystalline dashboard inserts to the pattern inset on the roof glass. 

BMW i7 electric saloon and its 31.3in ‘theatre screen’

As already noted, the i7’s pièce de resistance is the ‘Theatre Screen’, an optional extra that gives rear passengers a fold-down 31.3in widescreen display. The screen, available as standard on the Excellence Pro and M Sport Pro models, is also available as a £4,400 extra across the i7 range. 

With 8k resolution and touch-operation, it also has an HDMI input for computers, games consoles and Apple TV, with Amazon’s Fire TV system baked in. Each passenger has a touchscreen built in to the rear door to help them navigate this brave new world. Switch the system on, and you’re greeted with a short order of Hans Zimmer’s trademark cinematic pomp, as the rear blinds rise in sync with the vast screen’s descent.

The i7 has a lot of tech to take on board, but as your familiarity with the car grows, you’ll be increasingly on speaking terms, as many of the operations are more easily spoken as commands than activated through the screens – ‘close the blinds’, ‘lower the screen,’ and so on. 

It’s a big car – 5.4m long – so the array of sensors, self-parking systems and optional four-wheel steering are all hugely welcome. Scale also means a sizeable battery pack, with an official range of between 360 and 387 miles, depending on the specification. That means a realistic real-world range of 300 miles, which staves off range anxiety on all but the longest of journeys. 

The powertrain puts out 400kW (equivalent to 544hp), so a sub-five-second sprint to 60mph is easily attainable, with all-wheel drive keeping the car sure-footed at all times. There’s also an i7 M70 variant, which has been given the once-over by BMW's M Sport Division, shaving a second off the sprint time and with more responsive, tighter steering. 

BMW’s famed tagline, ‘the ultimate driving machine’, matters less in this tiny niche of chauffeured isolation. Whisper-quiet and uncannily smooth, the i7 does a superb job of blotting out the outside world and making a journey speed by. Your only problem is to decide what to watch. 

BMW i7 xDrive60 Excellence, from £113,970, BMW.co.uk

BMW brought a new form of transportation to the 76th Cannes Film Festival. The Icon is an all-electric boat developed in collaboration with Tyde, billed as ‘a new kind of flagbearer for sustainable mobility on water’.

The 13.15m vessel splices BMW battery tech with Tyde’s foiling technology, creating a craft that raises itself out of the water at speed to avoid drag and increase range.

The Icon all-electric boat

Six batteries sourced from BMW’s trailblazing i3 provide 240kWh of power to twin 100kW motors, enough to give the boat a range of 50 nautical miles and a top speed of 30 knots (100km and 55 km/h respectively).

BMW isn’t the first company to pair with an electric boat maker. Polestar’s batteries found their way into Candela’s C-8, a sleek hydrofoil designed by the Swedish boat builder. Where The Icon differs in its superstructure.

BMW has helped shape a deluxe, luxurious cabin experience, building on the smooth, near-silent propulsion system. Drawing on the sound architecture deployed in its high-end cars, like the BMW i7, shown here, The Icon has its own on-board ‘soundscape’, composed by regular BMW collaborator Hans Zimmer and delivered through a Dolby Atmos powered system. 

The prism-shaped cabin combines extensive glazing and folded metal forms, with unrivalled transparency, giving passengers an extraordinary view from above the waves. The interior contains rotating upholstered seats and a big-screen entertainment system. 

Cannes was an appropriate waterside venue for The Icon’s debut, with its connotations of starry glamour and BMW’s own long-term relationship with cinema and the big screen – the company’s new short film, The Calm, starring Pom Klementieff and Uma Thurman, is the first in the BMW Film series for eight years.  

For now, The Icon is a one-off, but it shows a desire to apply the lessons learned in developing electric cars to new sectors of mobility, particularly luxurious ones.

BMW.com

In recent years, the westside district of the auto-dependent city of Los Angeles has come to be known as ‘Silicon Beach’, thanks to the hundreds of technology companies, including start-ups, which now occupy the region between LAX and the Santa Monica Mountains. This is where Snapchat and Tinder were born, and where the likes of Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, Inc., and Netflix have since flocked. 

One of the newest arrivals is the Santa Monica outpost of Designworks, BMW Group’s subsidiary design studio which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. It’s part-think tank, part-hotbed for experimentation, home to self-described ‘architects of the future’. Located in an old warehouse, the studio is conceived as an ultra-cool, freethinking space where ideas flow and innovation is abundant. 

The new studio, covering an area of about 16,500 sq ft, is the largest of the three global Designworks studios, including locations in Munich and Shanghai. Providing cross-industry designs for BMW Group and a range of external clients, from consumer electronics to sports with a focus on digital capabilities and sustainability, the studio’s aim is to ‘shape the future of mobility’, in the automotive industry and well beyond. 

The opening marks a homecoming of sorts for the studio, which was founded in 1972 by Chuck Pelly down the California coast in Malibu, and was acquired by BMW in 1995. 

It was not a coincidence that the grand opening was timed to Frieze Los Angeles 2023, in a city that is fast becoming one of the most important destinations on the global art map. 

Art has long been integral to BMW’s brand identity and the studio will align itself closely with the creative industries in its attitude towards cultural development, its fearless penchant for risk-taking experimentation, and collaborations with artists. ‘Artists and designers alike are forward-thinkers who question the status quo, speed up the transformation and shape the future,’ says Adrian van Hooydonk, senior vice president of BMW Group Design. ‘Like the artist Thomas Demand: he and I both share an intense interest in social and cultural developments that helps us assess how relevant our work is for the future.’

Demand, who took part in a panel discussion with van Hooydonk to mark the opening of the studio, brought new meaning to the term ‘teaser’ in 2019, for the BMW Vision M NEXT concept car. Van Hooydonk invited the German artist to photograph the Vision Vehicle well in advance of the official unveiling, a project that was conceived in the previous Designworks studio in Malibu. Demand reconstructed parts of the vehicle in cardboard to embody the central ideas of the car, but fell short of ever revealing its full design. ‘I selected the really enigmatic parts of the car – the least branded and most interesting in how the different surfaces and planes get intertwined,’ he told us in a 2019 interview. ‘My images are abstracted but they show the idea and the characteristics of the design, how the shapes intertwine. The idea is still visibly “I’m a car”. My images are a little more fetishistic perhaps – but isn’t that more what a car will become?’

Undoubtedly, BMW was a trailblazer of the artist-brand collaboration, now business as usual for the luxury retail sphere. It all began in 1971 when BMW commissioned Gerhard Richter to create three large-scale paintings for the foyer of its Munich headquarters. Four years later, in 1975, the BMW art car was conceived by art enthusiast and racing driver Hervé Poulain. It has since seen the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari, Olafur Eliasson, and Jeff Koons (twice) create custom designs for BMW cars. 

Beyond the Art Car, BMW Group – through its cultural engagement division – has become embedded in the global art sphere, partnering with global art, music, architecture and design institutions, fairs and events, and commissioning artists for the BMW Open Works initiative. 

Although there are safety limits to what’s creatively possible in a driving environment, van Hooydonk is interested in the potential of art being more integrated into the design of the car, particularly in a luxury sector that places emphasis on personalisation. ‘A lot of our customers are interested in design and art, but it’s personal. Some really love certain artists and really don’t like others, he says. ‘A car could become a complete canvas.’

Last year, with the launch of the i7, BMW experimented with a new function called Art Mode. It saw artist Cao Fei (who did a separate art car in 2017), create ‘Quantum Garden’, displayed throughout the interior of the car, and marked the first time BMW had integrated digital art into its model. ‘Here at Designworks we’ve also been talking to people like Refik Anadol, whom we find very interesting as an artist’, ‘says van Hooydonk. ‘In the realm of digital art, we could do a lot more and imagine a lot more collaborations. It just has to make sense to both parties.’

‘We very regularly talk to the creative field,’ adds Holger Hampf, head of Designworks. It’s almost a blend of architecture, art, and design. We can find ourselves in this area where we move away from designing a car. We’re designing an object and an experience, mixing all these influences into our work.’

bmwgroupdesignworks.com

There’s an awful lot to unpack from the expansive information released by BMW to accompany its latest concept, the BMW i Vision Dee. Unveiled at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, further cementing the show’s importance in the tech mobility world, the awkwardly named i Vision Dee was released alongside a panoply of tech advances, including an emphasis on the ongoing blending of real and virtual worlds.

BMW i Vision Dee concept with E Ink

The concept’s most striking party trick comes courtesy of E Ink embedded body panels, divided into 240 segments. Last year’s BMW iX Flow concept debuted this tech in black and white; the BMW i Vision Dee has the chameleon-like ability to change its exterior using up to 32 colours. 

Beyond futuristic peacocking, there are a few potential practical applications for such a showstopping trick – making your car’s colour flash in a busy parking lot, perhaps, or signalling intentions to other drivers. Even the large wheels are segmented into E Ink ‘spokes’, allowing for striking colour combinations.

The form of the panels themselves marks another departure for the Bavarian brand. In recent years, the company’s signature double-kidney grille has expanded into a vast chromed maw, much to the detriment of the once-refined BMW corporate face. This new concept comes full circle, expanding the grille forms into the entire front end of the car, stripping them of decoration and incorporating lights and sensors to make for a simple, elegant ‘face’.

The minimalist theme continues throughout the exterior, which eschews the somewhat gawky proportions of recent mainstream BMW models in favour of a simple, purist line. If anything, it evokes the meticulous balance of ‘three box’ BMWs from the 1970s and 1980s; a bonnet, body and boot. In this respect, BMW is following companies like Hyundai, showcasing electrification through a retro-futuristic, synthwave-drenched visionary approach.

The other key tech is ‘digital performance’. ‘Dee’ stands for Digital Emotional Experience, and the concept blends its bank of screens with what BMW calls a ‘Mixed Reality Slider’. The stripped-back interior has a five-step selector that allows customers to ramp up their information levels from a basic ‘analogue’ set-up all the way to full ‘phygital’ immersion, with dimmable windows that can ‘gradually fade out reality’. On the exterior, the E Ink panels and grille can be used to change the ‘emotional’ appearance of the car. 

Will this ever reach production? In terms of silhouette, the BMW i Vision Dee offers a template for the next generation of 3-Series, one of the mainstays of the BMW range. The company’s concepts flip between lightly disguised versions of production-ready cars and far-future speculations. There’s nothing about this new vision that is particularly far-fetched – although the E Ink paintwork probably isn’t ready for the real world just yet.

BMW has dubbed its projected design direction the Neue Klasse, marking a post-combustion pivot point for the company. With design stripped back to a minimum, information and entertainment are set to become more and more important, not just to customers but to the company’s bottom line. 

BMW is controversially pressing ahead with plans to bundle many common optional extras, like the Parking Assistant Professional system, into a series of monthly subscription models. Self-expression, seamless communication, and all-round digital immersion might well be the future of mobility, but it looks like it’ll come at a price.

BMW.co.uk

BMW has a warehouse full of classics and concepts tucked away in the museum adjoining the BMW Munich HQ. Every now and again, the company dips into this archive to sate a small but vociferous customer base of collectors and enthusiasts.

This is the anniversary year of BMW’s ‘M’ subdivision, the racing and tuning specialists that have transformed the company’s saloons, estates, and SUVs into performance icons. One of the best-known fast BMWs of all time was the 3.0 CSL, launched as a racing car in 1972, with an accompanying road-going version to ensure it was eligible for the European Touring Car Championship.

The model was hugely successful on the track and highly prized on the road, with just 1,265 examples of the ultra-light version of the 3.0 CS (‘Coupé Sport’) coupé being built. The ’L’ stood for light (‘leicht’), with thinner grade steel, aluminium body parts, and the reduction of soundproofing and luxuries like electric windows. A wider body with a dramatic rear spoiler gave the 3.0 CSL the nickname of ‘Batmobile’.

BMW 3.0 CSL: an edition of 50, fit for 21st century

Now the BMW 3.0 CSL is back. In place of skinny steel there’s plenty of carbon fibre, and where the original mustered a couple of hundred horsepower, the new model makes around 552hp from its six-cylinder engine. Just 50 examples of this model will be made, building on the existing BMW M4 but offering almost entirely new bodywork. It’s also a strict two-seater, with racing seats and a place to store a couple of helmets in place of the rear seats.

Decorating this bodywork is a unique race-styled paint job, strongly influenced by the livery of the original championship winner’s sponsor, Martini, which in turn used the three colours that signified BMW Motorsport. BMW’s M cars are already highly bespoke, certainly when compared to the mass-produced models that make up the majority of the range. 

The new 3.0 CSL goes a step further, with an arduous production process at BMW Group’s Dingolfing factory in Moosthenning, Lower Bavaria. Interior elements have to be handmade and each of the new CSLs will take a total of ten days to build, with the paint job requiring 134 separate processes.

While not quite as outlandish as its Batmobile forebear, the new edition is still a striking machine, with a big rear spoiler, gold wheels, and other accoutrements that appear to be taken straight from the 1970s design sourcebook.  

Modern cars are no match for their featherlight predecessors, regardless of how much high material goes into their construction. Whereas the original CSL was a brawny, analogue machine, its 21st-century namesake deploys electronic trickery, from an active rear differential to aid with steering and balance, to adaptive suspension, carbon ceramic brakes and a traction control system with ten degrees of intensity.

After 50 years, the list of classic M cars is long and distinguished. In recent years, however, the division has started to bestow the badge on pure electric cars – appropriately enough, given their capacity for intense acceleration. Although the BMW 3.0 CSL probably isn’t the final petrol-powered BMW M to be built, the internal combustion engine is almost certainly on its last lap.

BMW M, BMW-M.com

In today’s emissions-obsessed world, BMW Motorrad’s decision to bring the R 18 to market in 2021, its first large-capacity cruiser, was undoubtedly a brave one. Representing the brand’s entrance into the cruiser motorbike segment, the R 18 also realises BMW’s collaboration with Marshall Amplification, with fully-faired models receiving onboard Marshall Gold Series stereos.

To sample these impressively engineered motorcycles and to fully understand BMW’s latest partnership, we joined the recent BMW Motorrad Heritage Ride, a global media event, with our destination set for Goodwood and its world-famous Revival.

Powered by BMW’s colossal new 1,802cc air-cooled flat-twin engine which produces 89bhp and a mighty 116.5ftlb – the largest ever fitted to a BMW motorcycle – the R 18’s low and elongated profile and clean telescopic forks draw inspiration from the elegant 1938 BMW R5.

The R5 is often regarded as BMW designer Rudolf Schleicher’s most cohesive work and the brand’s most influential pre-war machine. There’s also a cantilever rear end and exposed drive shaft to please the cruiser purists. As a result, the R 18 cuts quite a dash and looks like no other motorcycle.

Offered alongside the hugely successful R nineT models as part of BMW’s Heritage range, the R 18 is now also available in Classic and fully-faired Bagger and Transcontinental formats.

Clearly aimed at the lucrative US cruiser market, in which Harley Davidson enjoyed sales of over 125,000 units in 2021, BMW has created a range of motorcycles that, on paper at least, seem to fit the bill perfectly.

Riding the R 18 on the UK’s often twisty and uneven roads, however, reveals several of its shortcomings (such as its high weight and low footpeg clearance), but more importantly, it’s also an exercise that reveals great charms.

Steering is light but precise and the motor, lying at the very heart of the experience, is an engineering marvel. 

Pulling strongly and smoothly from as low as 2,000rpm, irrespective of which gear you find yourself in, the R 18 is a bike that can be hustled along with an impressive turn of pace.

Controls are beautifully weighted – clearly designed with real-world riding in mind and the quality of materials and switchgear onboard feel at one with the bike’s classy appearance.

Sat on a wide, comfortable saddle, riding the Bagger or Transcontinental in a convoy of other journalists, we found the Marshall stereo system quickly revealed its raison d'être. Playing music from your smartphone via Bluetooth and the BMW Motorrad Connected app, groups of riders in close formation can enjoy crisp, clear sounds as you cruise along the highway.

Cleverly bringing riders together on the road, both literally and figuratively, the 180-watt amplifier and six-speaker installation ensures it remains enjoyable even at motorway speeds.

Based near Milton Keynes, UK, Marshall has been making world-class speakers and amplifiers largely by hand since the early 1960s, offering customers a wide range of customisation and personalisation options. Although hard to fathom at first, the collaboration with BMW is an astute brand exercise that no doubt utilises the Anglo-American relationship to maximise heritage appeal… supported by a healthy dose of rock ‘n’ roll cool, of course.

Scaled back to its core, with little in the way of bodywork, the standard R 18 is also well suited to customisation and, indeed, the flourishing custom motorcycle scene.

The collaboration also seems to have influenced the R 18’s three selectable rider modes, appearing as Rain, Rock, and Roll, either at the bottom of the analogue speedometer or via the impressive 10.25in TFT screen of the Bagger and Transcontinental machines.

Fittingly, the R 18 is most enjoyable to ride in Roll mode, where it’s huge reserves of torque can be called upon at a moment’s notice.

For riders and passengers looking to travel long distances in comfort, the Transcontinental and Bagger models are deeply impressive motorcycles, blending modern technology with classic kerb appeal. 

The huge, metronomic flat-twin motor beneath you is sure to win many over on its own, but once you’ve ridden them, Marshall’s input feels like a seamless addition to the spirit of these machines. After all, the R 18 range is all about purity, emotion and rich heritage – attributes both brands possess in spades.

INFORMATION

BMW R18 B, from £22,450

BMW R18 Transcontinental, from £25,160

BMW-Motorrad.co.uk 

Few auto HQs have the levels of architectural aplomb and visual brand synthesis as BMW’s. It’s half a century since the Austrian architect Karl Schwanzer’s meticulously constructed aluminium-clad BMW HQ building opened in Munich, giving the Bavarian brand a towering symbol of technical sophistication and forward-thinking design.

Over the decades, the campus has been added to and enhanced, but the central components – the four-cylinder tower and rotunda – have stayed remarkably consistent. 

Schwanzer won the 1968 competition for the tower with his cloverleaf-shaped design, said to reference the cylinders of an engine.

Up until this point, the architect was best known for his work building exhibition pavilions – he designed the Austrian Pavilions for the 1958 Brussels World Fair and the 1967 Montreal Expo. The former structure was demounted and repurposed as Vienna’s Museum of the 20th Century. 

The complex was built between 1970 and 1972, a swift process for such a substantial building. Schwanzer’s design incorporated 3,000 aluminium façade elements, pre-cast using a special Japanese process that hadn’t been used in Europe before.

The construction process was also novel; the central reinforced concrete tower was built first, with ready-clad floors jacked into place from the top downwards. 

When completed, the curving aluminium façades towered over Munich’s ring road, just across from the city’s Olympic Park, built for the 1972 games and designed by Behnisch & Partner along with the celebrated structural engineer Frei Otto.

The 101m tower formed a striking backdrop for the Olympic coverage, instantly giving the skyscraper a global audience (even though the Olympic Committee demanded BMW remove its distinctive badges from the top floor). 

The tower is accompanied by the ‘bowl’ of the BMW Museum, an inverted dome that houses an ever-changing display of the company’s extensive collection, with the famous BMW roundel painted on the roof.

The buildings have since appeared in numerous films, starting with 1975’s Rollerball, when they became the sinister HQ of the Energy Corporation. They also serve as an impressive location for photoshoots – seen here behind the BMW 530e in a shot by Koto Bolofo for Wallpaper* in April 2019.

BMW has continued its commitment to high-quality corporate architecture. In 2005, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, while two years later the BMW Welt opened alongside the Munich HQ, a dramatic piece of deconstructivist design by Coop Himmelb(l)au that serves as an event space and customer centre for the brand.

This year, the company announced a collaboration with OMA and 3XN to explore future development of its main Munich factory.

INFORMATION

bmw.com

bmw-welt.com

In 1975 Hervé Poulain, a French auctioneer and art enthusiast with a sideline in auto racing, came up with a novel idea for combining his passions. Poulain planned on competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and wanted to make a splash, whether he made the podium or not. He approached BMW Motorsport chief Jochen Neerpasch with the idea of commissioning an artist to paint a racing-spec BMW 3 series. Neerpasch liked the plan and they approached Poulain’s pal Alexander Calder who liked the plan too and got to work, initially working on a toy car before the BMW workshop upscaled his design.

That debut Art Car was imagined as a one-off – a passion project rather than a PR device – but it created such a positive spin that 19 artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol (who famously painted his car, by hand, in 29 minutes), Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari and Olafur Eliasson, have added to the list of BMW Art Cars, making it one of the most dynamic, enduring and compelling collaborative art projects. 

Only one artist, though, has been invited back. In 2010, Jeff Koons designed the 17th BMW Art Car, an M3 GT2 that also competed in Le Mans. Koons was such a fan of the Art Car series – and given his clear interest in Duchampian readymades and the Pop Art of Lichtenstein and Warhol, you understand why – he actually offered his services to BMW.

That relationship has grown and Koons and the German auto-giant have now collaborated again on The 8 X Jeff Koons, the first of the Art Car series to go into (very limited) production. 

Only 99 of the Koons-pimped M850i xDrive Gran Coupés – which he describes as ‘sporty and flashy as well as minimalist and conceptual’ – will be produced, at the rate of two a week. The cars were launched digitally earlier this year and – all but one – were sold within three weeks. 

The 8 X Jeff Koons made its first physical public appearance outside the Rockefeller Centre in New York earlier this month, a trailer for a Christie’s auction of the last available car from the production run. It eventually sold for $475,000, with all proceeds going to the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children. (Koons is a major benefactor to the charity. The artist turned to them for help in the 1990s when his ex-wife Ilona Staller refused him the right to see their son Ludwig. Koons talks openly and movingly about the pain of that separation.)

Koons is big on family – he has six children with his wife, the artist Justine Wheeler – and the new car is a relatively family-friendly four-seater. ‘I wanted a car I would actually drive,’ says Koons – but the design is closer to his first design for the debut race car. ‘My original idea was the car would go by on the track and suddenly you would see “Pop! Pop! Pop!” And it would be like these energy explosions taking place.’

Koons’ plan A for his debut car was to exaggerate the effect using lenticulars, but the idea proved impractical on a race car – ‘I wanted to make a car that had a chance of winning,’ he says. It’s even more impractical on a production car but Koons has returned to the ‘Pop! Pop!’ and a puff of smoke device, this time meticulously rendered in paint. 

‘I really wanted to return to something a little warm and minimal but with this essence of thrust and energy,’ he says. ‘So I've worked with lines starting in the front that are very thin and then get wider as you go back over the surface of the car. You get this sense of aerodynamics and these little popping areas of energy.’ 

BMW’s head of cultural engagement, Thomas Girst, says Koons made Covid-inconvenienced visits to its Dingolfing and Landshut plants as his design was realised while the Koons team in New York worked on complex digital designs. Getting the artist's suggested paint job right initially took 300 hours of specialist man and woman power, but the company says they have since got that down to a more manageable 250 hours.

Koons was insistent, though, that this design be realised in paint rather than as a printed vinyl wrap, the device used on his first art car (itself, no mean technical feat). ‘I love the generosity of paint,’ Koons says. ‘When something is printed you never get that saturation, you never get that generosity, the way light bounces of pigment.’

The red and leather interior, meanwhile, has a definite if unintentional Spider-Man vibe. ‘I didn’t plan that people look at it and think of Spider-Man but I did want them to feel that type of energy, feel something else running through their veins.’

Koons and Spider-Man do have some history. The producers of the Oscar-winning animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse admit that the Whitney Museum’s 2014 Koons retrospective was an influence and the idea has been floated that the car appear in a future Marvel production. Koons is somewhat sceptical. 

He is keen to work with BMW again, though. ‘I hope that BMW invites me back. I hope that I could work on an electric car or some type of prototype car of the future. This car thrills and heightens the senses but I hope I have the opportunity to design something from scratch that can comfort and protect.’ 

We had reservations about BMW’s most high-profile foray into electrification to date, the mighty, somewhat aesthetically challenged BMW iX. If you can muster sufficient faith in BMW’s far, far future-facing design approach, then the iX is actually one of the better electric cars on the market, a machine built without compromise. In comparison, the other new EV in the BMW fold, the BMW i4, takes a very different tack. 

The main difference, beyond the absence of an internal combustion engine, is a much larger and more generous dashboard screen. Unlike the svelte i4 Concept shown back in 2020, the rest of the interior is standard BMW, with a blend of dark leather, carbon-fibre finishes and chromed details. 

As a result of this shared heritage, the i4 isn’t perhaps as efficient a design as it could have been. The clean sheet is a big attraction of EVs, but the astronomical cost of developing a new car platform means that sharing components between ICE and EV models is a better short-term strategy.

The upcoming BMW i7 will have a similar relationship to the next generation 7-Series saloon. However, in both cases, BMW has positioned the battery-powered cars at the very top of the product tree as the ultimate technological and performance showcase.

This shared approach means that ICE and EV share the common BMW look and proportion, a design language honed over generations. Although BMW has never shied away from aesthetic controversy, as the iX and its older siblings, the i3 and i8, attest, its production models tend to keep proportions clean and over-emphasise the details.

The i4, therefore, shares the big-grille grimace of its sister EV. Under the skin, however, the iX is very much its own beast, with no shared bits and pieces beyond the motors, gearbox and batteries that make up the electric drivetrain. 

The i4 comes in several flavours, the most potent of which is the i40 M50. Bestowing the coveted ‘M’ badge on an EV is not without its compromises.

There is prodigious performance on tap, but as ever it comes at the expense of range, the perpetual balancing act that every EV has to undertake.

This tightrope is one reason why high-performance GT-style EVs often make more sense when the dial is turned down a little bit. Just like with the Porsche Taycan, the most powerful models don’t necessarily go the furthest, and while (tiresome) bragging rights might be important to some, getting to where you want to go without a hint of anxiety is far more important.

Case in point, if you opt for the ‘base’ eDrive40 Sport model, you’ll get up to 365 miles of range. This model, the M50, is supposed to shift 315 miles between top-ups. However, a near-brimmed battery showed just under 220 miles of range, and using even small dollops of the available wallop quickly ate away at those numbers. Likewise, the humbler Taycan GTS bests the range offered by the Taycan Turbo and Turbo S versions. Faster is by no means better. 

With the i4 M50, what you lose in all-out practicality you make up for in familiarity, for the driving experience, layout and handling all defer to BMW’s tried and tested formula of driver-focused appeal. This alone might swing it for sceptics, who want to go electric but aren’t ready to discard the accoutrements of conventional auto design. Still, you can’t help but think that you’re paying a high price for all that rarely used performance potential, as if you’d packed a pair of dumbbells in your carry-on luggage.

After i7, BMW’s cross-pollination between battery-only EVs, hybrids, and conventional ICE cars will continue for a few years yet. Like most car companies with a very broad product portfolio, BMW is still hedging its bets about newer technologies like hydrogen drive, and last year’s Concept XM indicates the form of a new ‘M’-only hybrid crossover model for 2023. Whatever transpires with future fuelling technology, BMW’s diverse approach to size, shape, and market segment looks set to continue.

INFORMATION

BMW i4, from £51,905; as tested (BMW i4 M50), £76,600 

bmw.co.uk

The new BMW iX has a certain devil-may-care swagger about it. BMW has been in the electrification game for far longer than other premium manufacturers, and although its strategy has been baffling at times, the company has always played the long game. The iX is a classic case in point. As the new flagship electric vehicle in BMW’s electric portfolio, it straddles categories, defies easy description, and offers up a challenging aesthetic proposition. It’s also an extremely accomplished car, electric or otherwise, with some bold design decisions that could only have come from a place of longstanding experience.

How did BMW get here? The BMW i3 and i8 were two of the very first standalone pure electric cars. Unveiled back in 2011 and introduced into the marketplace in 2013 and 2014 respectively, they were loudly acclaimed yet commercially unspectacular, failing to get the company a major toehold in the burgeoning EV market despite the many billions spent in R&D.

The little i3 is a fantastic car and can still hold its own against far more contemporary rivals. Production is due to end this summer, with around 250,000 units built. The i8, which was a plug-in hybrid sports car, as opposed to a pure EV, was also acclaimed for its styling, usability, and performance. There was even a BMW i8 Roadster. The last of just over 20,000 production cars rolled off the Leipzig production line in June 2020. If you catch sight of one today, you’ll see that the futuristic form remains quite unlike anything else on the road, now or then.

Perhaps due to the relative failure of the i3 and i8 in the marketplace, BMW pivoted its strategy and decided to integrate i-drive electrification into its mainstream models, rather than build standalone EVs. So far, there’s an iX3 electric SUV and the i4 sedan, with electrified versions of other key cars in the works, headed up by the new BMW i7, designed to go head-to-head with the Mercedes EQS.

It can’t quite beat the EQS on range (the iX’s various versions offer between 341 miles and 392 miles), nor in sheer opulence of the interior. Instead, there’s a much more muted take on automotive technology, one that feels far less in your face.

For many people, the iX argument will be won or lost within seconds. This is a visually striking car, and not everyone will mean that in a positive way. The iX does look better in the metal than in photographs, but it is not going to win any beauty contests. For a start, that colossal grille dominates the front end. BMW (and to a lesser extent Audi and Mercedes) is seemingly on a quest to supersize its more identifiable characteristic. The so-called ‘double kidney’ has been an integral part of the BMW corporate identity since 1933. Since then, its application has veered from strict functionalism to elaborate over-emphasis.

The iX is clearly the latter, even if the ‘mesh’ itself is now an abstracted geometric panel. In functional terms, it’s where the car’s bevvy of sensors is housed, so it makes a certain sort of sense to make it such a prominent feature. Counterintuitively, BMW refers to this approach as ‘Shy Tech’, the art of concealing technology until it’s actually needed.

The rest of the body doesn’t so much flow back from this bold face as slide and slip in a chiselled, faceted kind of way. The tapering belt line that rises above the rear wheel to form a signature thick D-pillar was first seen in the i3 and has subsequently been widely imitated. In the iX, it seems to imply the end of the car, but there’s still a relatively large rear overhang.

The decision to narrow the head- and taillights into long horizontal bands is also at odds with the verticality of the grille.

And yet it sort of works. As a whole, the iX’s visual contradictions balance each other out, helped by some adventurous detailing and elements rendered in the optional Titan Bronze Exterior Trim. Visually, the iX has far more in common with the compact i3 than any of its SUV siblings; both EVs share the idiosyncratic discord that comes out from pushing the envelope.

For now, it’s still an outlier in the range, for it has no direct ICE-equivalent. Superficially, the iX sits in the same class as BMW’s other X-model SUVs, with the big X7 its closest relation (although it is closer in length to the X5 – it just looks bigger). But as we said, the i3 (and i8) still look fresh today because they broke free from the incremental evolutionary approach taken by the company’s other models.

The interior is one of the best premium spaces on the market. It makes the screen-heavy look of other contenders appear overly complex and busy. BMW has done much to pare back the surfaces without compromising function. As BMW head of design Domagoj Dukec told us last year, the iX ‘is a pivotal product for a whole new way of thinking about car design… we reduced the amount of interior elements. We offer more by doing less. This “mono material” approach shows more exclusivity than a traditional patchwork interior design.’

There is also more evidence of the Shy Tech approach, such as the click pad on the centre armrest, lovingly formed from a sliver of grainy wood, with the buttons for media and navigation imprinted onto its surface, along with the crystal glass iDrive controller. Crystal is also used for the adjustable seat buttons mounted on the doors, and the whole ambience is more akin to concept car than production model (the iX began life as the BMW Vision iNext shown at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show).

This less is more approach means that the little details delight. There are buttons instead of door handles. The mood lighting doesn’t go all-out superyacht-style but is reduced to graceful slashes of colour atop the doors. There’s electrochromatic glass in the optional panoramic roof (standard on the xDrive50 M Sport), which turns opaque at the click of a button.

The hexagonal steering wheel sounds gimmicky but works well in practice, and the optional Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound Audio System shares the Shy Tech ethos by concealing its speakers subtly throughout the cabin. The processing speed of the big, television-like horizontal touchscreen is good and never feels like it’s trying to catch up. The interface is crisp and intuitive, although some of the graphical wallpaper choices might date faster than the rest of the car.

For the time being, luxury EVs have to be big in order to accommodate the range/battery-size equation that buyers associate with spending lots of money.

To use a mobile phone analogy, if the i3 is an original iPhone, then the iX is an iPhone 13 Pro Max: it takes a bit of getting used to but is hard to give up once you’ve adjusted to the change in scale.

There are also the clear performance benefits of electrification. 2022 marks the 50th year of BMW’s ‘M’ division. Petrol-powered models bearing the legendary M-prefix continue to be held in the highest esteem by the traditional enthusiast. The BMW i4 M50 is already on sale and a flagship iX M60 is in the works. For now, the top dog is the iX xDrive50 M Sport, which has 523hp and can do the obligatory 0 to 62mph sprint in 4.6 seconds. Power goes to all four wheels and the familiar sharpness of instant electric torque has not been blunted by the iX’s considerable weight.

The xDrive50 also has an impressive 380-mile range, with a clever efficiency drive mode that never feels like you’re being held back, unlike in other EVs. Sport mode also adds a ghostly science fiction-inspired ‘engine’ drone. Mention should also be made of the car’s soundscapes, which are triggered by turning the car on and off. These have been composed by none other than Hans Zimmer, king of the ominous cinematic crescendo.

If you’re a habitual SUV driver, then the iX’s imposing (or challenging) looks and mighty stance won’t do anything to deter you, but for those who prefer to give off a less confrontational vibe, it might be a step too far. As a canvas for innovation, it’s second to none (we especially liked the recent iX-based Flow concept car with its e-ink surfaces). The BMW iX is hugely impressive on every level, with the interior alone putting it at the top of its class.

When BMW puts its focus solely on electrification, good things happen.

INFORMATION

BMW iX, from £69,905

Model tested BMW iX xDrive50 M Sport, £116,965 (with options)

bmw.co.uk

There is a tender moment at the close of Wayne McGregor and Random International’s latest collaboration, No One is an Island, when two dancers lie beneath the sculpture that forms the centrepiece of the work. It’s as if they are being enveloped by it. The sculpture is a robotic machine, which over the course of the 12-minute live performance ‘dances’ alongside its fellow (human) performers. 

As in their previous creative partnerships, No One is an Island, presented by BMWi and Superblue, and premiered during this year’s Frieze London, is infused with a spirit of enquiry. The quietly meditative but arresting work raises questions such as how we recognise an object as ‘human’ through its movement, and how we relate to our own image, our own humanness, when it is in motion.

Random International seeded the ideas for the sculpture, called Fifteen Points/II, during artists’ residencies in the US, one of which was at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Comprising a set of robotic ‘arms’, programmed to move along two parallel tracks, the machine they developed is designed around models of human movement as represented by 15 moving light points, hence the illuminated tips of Fifteen Points/II.

As the robot articulates its way through space, Company Wayne McGregor dancers Rebecca Bassett-Graham and Jacob O’Connell weave around and through the sculpture, exploring their own sense of being bodies in motion, while also contemplating the gestures of the machine. At times they pause, as if they are engaging in a silent, physical conversation with the robot. This grand pas de deux of sorts culminates in the ‘limbs’ of Fifteen Points/II marking the outline of a human shape ‘walking’ towards and away from us. It’s a dramatic and ephemeral moment in the work, evoking the feeling that the machine has come alive. 

‘This work is an emotional prototype for what we might expect in future with machines,’ say Random International. ‘What happens to us, what do we feel when we see a thing (a robot!) that moves like us, but doesn’t otherwise look at all like we do? Do we connect?’

‘During the performance, the dancers boot the robotic sculpture and wrestle life into it. It synergises future and present, technology and humanity – a topic that drives us as a company,’ adds Christiane Pyka, BMW Group Arts & Design Cooperations.

McGregor says that when he saw an early study for Fifteen Points, it felt like an object, or an ‘instrument’ as he likes to call it, with ‘an amazing visceral and poetic power’. ‘This robot moves harmoniously with grace and elegance,’ he comments. ‘It is, in itself, a sensual, aesthetically pleasing living machine. No One is an Island invites us to interact with it as we do, body to body, in real life.’

As an entry point to the choreography, he and his dancers started with a study of the biomechanics of the sculpture. ‘We began with trying to understand the physicality of the robot,’ says McGregor. ‘How does it move through space, how does it kinetically flow?’ During rehearsals, he witnessed the dancers developing a connection with the machine that resonated for him: ‘I had a Tamagotchi when I was younger and it is incredible how quickly I built a relationship with it – I was devastated when it was roasted! The dancers built a bond with the No One is an Island robot in a similar way and very quickly.’

The sonic backdrop for McGregor’s sinuous choreography and often delicate gestures of the machine is an original score by Japanese musician Chihei Hatakeyama. Through its waves of sound and subtle tonal shifts, the music adds a mesmerising quality to the performance. McGregor describes Hatakeyama as an ‘acoustic sculptor’ and often plays his music in the studio while he is working, ‘It felt important to have a score for this work that allowed you to enter a liminal world where nothing felt fixed,’ he says. 

Both McGregor and Random International point to the climax of the performance – the robot ‘walking’ – as the most interesting part of the work. ‘That’s where you really experience cognitive dissonance on the awakening of the entire machine,’ say Random International. What McGregor has choreographed up to this point is a movement narrative, an ‘energetic engagement’ in his words, or series of ‘co-ordinations’, beautifully expressed by his dancers, which prepare us for this moment of connection.

‘We suddenly realise (again) that we’re not alone,’ say Random International. ‘We don’t exist in isolation and we thrive on feeling with others.’ 

What No One is an Island makes us feel is at the heart of a longstanding and ongoing investigation by both McGregor and Random International. For all the artists, an exploration of our physical ‘communication behaviours’ affords us a glimpse of a possible future relationship between man and machine.

‘As robots become more intelligent, and as AI and machine learning help train and evolve agency, these questions will become even more resonant and explosive,’ says McGregor. What may unfold between us and them, he suggests, is a ‘new movement language’, which is a dazzling idea – a true and exciting step into the unknown.

INFORMATION
The performance will be shown 13 – 16 October 2021, 3pm-7pm daily during Frieze London 2021, parkvillage.co.uk

ADDRESS

Park Village Studios
1 Park Village East,
London NW1 7PX

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BMW Motorrad has announced its newest and most innovative creation to date. The CE 04 is a productionised version of the bold Motorrad Definition CE 04 concept unveiled in November 2020.

Intended to be a revolutionary shift away the company’s current C Evolution electric scooter, on sale since 2014, the Definition CE 04 added a neo-industrial veneer to an already high-tech power plant. Surprisingly little has changed in the shift to a production model, and having the battery positioned low in the frame adds stability, giving the scooter different geometry in comparison to a ‘conventional’ petrol-powered model.

The striking solid wheels and elongated bodywork allows for internal storage for a helmet, as well as a phone charging compartment with socket. Other visual enhancements include solid wheels, an integrated stand, ‘sliding seat’ and a selection of bold graphic options. The CE 04 offers near silent running, smartphone pairing to the 10.5” display screen and optional adaptive headlights. The welcome zip of its new electric drivetrain makes the CE 04 a natural city machine, enabling the scooter to reach 50km/h in just 2.6 seconds.

You can even park the CE 04 up indoors in the absence of dripping oil or a choking exhaust. Being a BMW, there’s driving pleasure built in, courtesy of Eco, Rain and Road riding modes, which strike a balance between maximising range, safety, and entertainment. 

A 120 km/h top speed (approximately 75 mph) means the CE 04 won’t be left wanting on main roads, and the 130km (80 mile) range should cover most weekly commutes, with an optional quick charger that can take the battery from 20 per cent charge to around 80 per cent in just 45 minutes. The CE 04 shares its cutting-edge battery cells with the new flagship BMW iX and is a welcome addition to the company’s burgeoning collection of pure EVs. The CE 04 is the first in a new wave of urban models from BMW Motorrad, all of which, according to BMW AG’s CEO Oliver Zipse, will be pure electric from now on, saving combustion engines for touring bikes. Urban transport is about to get a lot smoother and quieter.

INFORMATION

BMW Motorrad CE 04 electric scooter. Available from early 2022, £11,700

bmw-motorrad.co.uk

The Croatian automotive designer Domagoj Dukec has been at the helm of BMW’s global design team since April 2019. Before this, he had overseen some of the BMW Group’s many sub-divisions, including time as chief designer at BMW i and BMW M. With responsibility for the Bavarian brand’s global design direction, he is at the heart of the action during a fevered period for the industry. We spoke to Dukec about the company’s newest models, a trio of pure electric cars, the new iX3, i4 and iX, and what they mean for the future of BMW.

Wallpaper*: BMW was one of the pioneers of creating pure electric cars. How is BMW responding to the accelerating adoption of EVs around the world?

Domagoj Dukec: BMW is undergoing a ‘time of transformation’. The BMWi models are becoming more and more the most relevant part of the brand, especially in markets like China. Although the EV percentage of sales is still low, it is rapidly increasing. Our strategy was to make EVs very visible, then fold them into the main product line.

W*: Tell us about your newest models, the BMW iX3, i4 (showcased as a concept by Wallpaper* in 2020) and iX. 

DD: We have two strategies. The BMW i4 and BMW iX3 are high-volume cars. People have wondered why the i4 and iX3 are not very progressive designs, like the original i3 or i8. An iX3 is for someone who wants an electric X3, while the i4 is at the very core of BMW, the three-box sedan. It brings everything together. It is a modern interpretation of the Neue Klasse 3-Series design.

W*: These two models are closely related to their combustion engined equivalents. What about the BMW iX?

DD: The iX is a very different story. It is a pivotal product for a whole new way of thinking about car design. Our focus is more on the interior than the exterior. We invented the SUV segment with the X5, and then evolved it with the X6. But this is not a bold, bossy car like the original ‘X’ models. We wanted to see how the idea of X-ness will change and become more sustainable in the future. It’s a car for people who want to be different. 

W*: How did you make the most of the advantages that an electric drivetrain offers?

DD: The interior space is better. BMWs are traditionally rear-wheel drive, which means an engine that intrudes into the cabin and a large transmission tunnel. The proportions have come to express a certain amount of status, one that you don’t get with the stance of a front-wheel drive. Although somehow it’s a bit dated now. It doesn’t offer as much space. Electric cars can have a flat floor and you get more space on the same footprint. It’s in line with our sustainable values. Cars aren’t getting bigger. But overall, proportions aren’t really changing. Aerodynamics don’t change, nor does human physiognomy.

W*: Cars are getting heavier. How does BMW deal with this?

DD: You have to accommodate it. An EV weighs 300kg more than a combustion engine car. So you need more overhang for crash compensation – it’s just physics. Safety drives car design more than ever before because of this weight.

W*: What about new materials? The i3 and i8 had a pioneering use of carbon fibre.

DD: Our approach is always where to use the right material for the best performance. We tend to use carbon fibre on roof structures to keep the centre of gravity low. Steel for structure because it's strong and aluminium for panels that can be deformed.

W*: How was the iX developed?

DD: It was very different to the Project ‘i' cars like i3 and i8. They were more like an internal start-up project, a new brand within BMW. The iX was produced and developed by exactly the same production team as our other cars, which was a challenge. For example, we reduced the amount of interior elements. We offer more by doing less. This ‘mono material’ approach shows more exclusivity than a traditional patchwork interior design, but it’s not what our teams are used to doing.

W*: What are your favourite elements of the interior?

DD: Our whole thinking was how to give the interior space a non-automotive feel. Of course, for safety reasons you can’t just make a lounge. The seats have to face forwards, there’s a steering wheel. But it is different. The way the screen is presented is like a television on a piece on furniture. All the functional elements, like the ventilation controls and seat adjustment buttons, are treated like items of jewellery. It’s a more philosophical approach. We’ve also mounted the iDrive controller on a wood console, because it feels human and natural. These touch points are important.

W*: So will we see these features in future BMW models?

DD: The smart material approach, for sure. The iX is not like sitting in a fighter jet or a computer, it’s about using new technology to reduce complexity. Society has changing values and attitudes and BMW wants to reflect that. We want to be pioneering and responsible without compromising the emotional experience of our cars.

INFORMATION

bmw.com

BMW Definition CE 04

The BMW Definition CE 04 is an electric scooter concept that, according to BMW, sets out to redefine this hugely important segment. Designed as both a means of transport and a means of communication for urban commuters, the CE 04 embodies the brand’s new ‘Plugged to life' motto. Intended to mix the rider’s analogue world with its digital one, BMW believes it has created a highly emotional mobility experience. The design of the Definition CE 04 is a break from the conventional scooter look. The low elongated vehicle body contains a compact drivetrain and battery, and the low centre of gravity helps the handling. It also allows for new storage solutions like the illuminated side-openings, perfect for a helmet or small items of luggage. The striking floating-style seat bench can be easily approached either from the side, or from the rear, and allows improved ergonomics for both riders and passengers. It can be individually adjusted by pushing it back and forth, meaning even tall riders can sit comfortably.

Two colours dominate the CE 04’s distinctive design: metallic white for the main bodywork panels and matt black for the technical centre of the vehicle. The darker section stretches from the front to the rear and includes the tyres, front lights (made up of two minimal U-shaped LEDs), the drive unit and the suspension components. At the rear of the vehicle, lights have been integrated into the rear side panels in the form of two C-shaped light elements.

Graphic design is an important part of the CE 04’s visual appeal. Gerald Höller, graphic designer at BMW Motorrad Design explains: "Thanks to the new architecture, we have created something completely new with this vehicle - and in the future we want to use graphics and colours to emphasise this even further. We see the CE 04 Definition almost as a moving screen with which a customer can express his personality - from modern elegant to urban.” The CE 04 features a 10.25-inch display – the largest ever on a scooter to date – which acts as the interface between the digital and analogue worlds of the rider, via their smartphone. The designers of the CE 04 also focused on rider equipment, including a parka that features integrated light guides in the sleeves and hood for greater visibility in traffic, plus a pocket phone charging function, to ensure riders remain connected on the move.

BMW R 18

At the other end of the spectrum, and one of the most recent new production bikes BMW, the R 18 is a large combustion-engined cruiser that couldn’t be more different in concept to the CE 04 – or indeed any other BMW bike on sale. BMW Motorrad is clearly not afraid of developing machines that push the design envelope in both directions, and enthusiasts might remember the impact the brand’s S1000RR had on the sports bike segment when it was launched in 2008. Available now in both First Edition and Classic format, priced from £18,995, the R 18 evokes the brand’s heritage in a way that few other bikes have done so ever before. Unashamedly paying tribute to BMW motorcycles of the pre-war era, such as the elegant R5, the R 18 is an exercise in upmarket minimalism alongside sheer Germanic brutishness.

Revealed in glossy black paintwork and with generous amounts of polished chrome for the exhaust and cylinder head covers, it cuts an elegant, low-slung dash. Power comes from a mighty 1,802 cc two-cylinder boxer engine, which is the largest of its type BMW has ever built. Fed to the back wheel via an exposed nickel-plated shaft drive, the unit delivers 89bhp at 4,750 rpm and a mighty 117ft lbs of torque at 3,000 rpm. Riders have three power modes to choose from, Rain, Roll and Rock, but cruise control is not fitted as standard. In an era of tightening emissions and engine downsizing, be in no doubt that this 345kg bike is a brave move from BMW. As you might expect, the R 18 is supported by a huge list of accessories designed and built in partnership with bike gear specialists Roland Sands and Vance & Hines, meaning that in original specification, the R 18 is a gloriously blank canvas for your creativity to run wild.

INFORMATION

bmw-motorrad.co.uk

For a couple of days in early Spring, the doors to BMW's Designworks subsidiary have been thrown open out of hours to give North America an early preview of the new BMW Concept i4. This car is the latest in a long line of conceptual visions that are intended to distil the German company’s future thinking into physical form. It's also substantially production ready, with a 2021 on-sale date mooted for a car that could be the most important BMW of the modern age. 

The Concept i4 is characterised by its very clean, pure lines, with a forward, dynamic thrust. ‘We wanted to make sportiness more welcoming and less aggressive,’ says Kai Langer, Head of BMWi Design. The purity of line and proportion shares a substantial amount with the forthcoming BMW 4-Series, although some of the detailing – the blue accents, minimal wing mirrors, faceted geometric wheels with angular aluminium blades for better aerodynamics and rear diffuser are taken straight from established ‘i’ design language.

How many of these details will survive to production in unclear – the light clusters are show car sleek but not yet legislatively feasible, while the interior is a rich symphony of light coloured materials, geometric patterns and moody lighting. The latter is particularly pronounced when switching between modes, from Comfort to Eco to Sport, with the entire interior lighting scheme flashing in synch with the shifting dashboard display, before settling back into a more ambient background shade. The dashboard itself adds a twist to the current trend for widescreen flat displays, with a subtly curved screen sitting atop a low dash, akin to a flagship flatscreen TV in an urban loft. Buttons and dials have been pared back, with the rotary iDrive controller rendered in crystal, while the cabin materials run a soft gamut through bronze, silver, cream and grey.

‘We wanted to show how the progressiveness of ‘i’ and electric mobility could fit with our 100 years of heritage,’ says Langer. ‘It’s why we chose a 4-door coupe – it’s old school perfectly matched with new school.’ At the front, the i4 offers up a new interpretation of the company’s shape-shifting double-kidney grille. ‘We have no need for an air intake for cooling at the front,’ Langer says, ‘it’s just for aerodynamics. Instead, we re-integrated the function of the kidney into what we call an ‘intelligence window’ – it contains all the sensors you need for modern driving. It translates the feature into the digital world’ 

Arguably, BMW’s i models haven’t been the runaway success the company hoped. The i3 and i8 were distinct and different, but despite a decade-long head start, they’ve been eclipsed by other, more conservative EVs. The design team is clear about their mission. ‘We want to reach a lot more customers with the i4,’ says Kampf, ‘we have to be careful about making bold statements, but we also have to live up to our reputation. This car is playing in a different league.’

Designworks plays an important role in shaping BMW's future. ‘We’re an outside company that has to provoke and challenge the parent company, we can ‘rattle the cage,’' says Holger Hampf, current president of this satellite studio, tucked away in a business park in 1000 Oaks, just north of Malibu. The company was acquired by BMW some 25 years ago and its influence on BMW Group design strategy has only grown. The studio has a close relationship with the nearby Art Center Pasadena, home to one of the US’s most prestigious transportation design courses. Past graduates include Chris Bangle, former BMW Group Chief of Design. His successor, current Design Chief Adrian van Hooydonk, also spent time at Designworks.

‘It used to be a secret lab that was hidden away,’ Hampf says, ‘but that’s changed as BMW is excited about having its own integrated design consultancy. These days, Adrian [van Hooydonk] puts us on strategic projects.’ Some 50% of the studio’s time is taken up by the BMW Group, with Designworks operations spread between the team of 80 in California, a Shanghai studio of 30 and another 40 people working alongside the several hundred designers at the main BMW studio in Munich. Designworks played a key role in the long genesis of BMW’s ‘i’ brand, shaping the Megacity Vehicle (MCV) at the turn of the last decade that paved the way for the pioneering BMW i3 of 2013. Surprisingly, their second largest client is the agri-industrial giant John Deere, as well as a host of tech firms, from start-ups to established players, and everything from aircraft interiors to superyachts. 

Cars and mobility are still the heart of the operation. ‘LA is a very good place for us to be. It’s car culture, messy and creative. It inspires our people,’ says Hampf. The studios are smart and glossy, belying their location on a relatively non-descript industrial estate. Secret clearances abound, and the artfully scattered concept models in the reception areas only go on show once their embargos have long been put to bed. The real action happens behind closed doors. By contrast, the Concept i4 is out and about and interest in the production version is growing. With a mooted 600km range it could prove to be the car that puts BMW at the forefront of the electric revolution. ‘Sustainability isn’t just about recycling, it’s about being efficient, visually as well as physically,’ Langer says, ‘we have more intellectual depth at BMW - we don’t believe in a dystopian future.’

INFORMATION

bmw.com

Émeric Lhuisset is concerned with photographic truths. The French visual artist would like to examine the complex narrative of the refugee through the medium of photography. He wants to articulate a deeper representation than is offered by typical photojournalism – present the human side of the migrant, and within a wider geopolitical context.

Lhuisset is the latest artist to be supported by BMW Art & Culture, the branch of the Munich car firm investing in arts and ideas through its work with, among others, Tate Modern, Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair and Art D’Égypte. We recently visited Paris’ Grand Palais to see Lhuisset’s latest exhibition ‘L’autre rive’ (‘The other shore’) – a body of work he created for his BMW Residency at Gobelins L’École de L’Image here in the French capital.

‘Supporting photographers is a long-term approach,’ observes Thomas Girst of the residency, which is now in its eighth year. As Head of BMW Cultural Engagement, he says the artists have complete creative independence, with no interference from the company. Lhuisset, Girst admits, has been a remarkable choice – a risky one for a big car corporation given his provocative stance. ‘He deals with images of war and refugees and it is very brave of BMW to support his work. What he does is so real – he brings depth to photography. It shouldn’t always be just about beauty and aesthetics, but how these subjects come into play when the world turns ugly.’

‘L’autre rive’ presents Lhuisset’s coverage of the century-old conflict in the Middle East. The narrative arc here is the disappearance of places and people, the humanisation of the refugee against often fixed narratives – in the case of the Kurds, from heroic freedom fighter to anti-hero immigrant. His work depicts elaborately staged sets as well as everyday domestic scenes, selfies, blue skies with dotted clouds that hover over civilisations in conflict, war and disappearance. We caught up with Lhuisset to see how the visual artist explores the possibilities of photography.

W*: Your exhibition is a compelling visual account of the journey of the many refugees, in this case from the battlefields of Kurdistan – in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria – to exile in Europe. This certainly feels like a very personal story. Why the Middle East and the Kurdish plight?
EL: I studied geopolitics and fine art; I then worked in Turkey and Syria for many years as a photographer and artist. I am interested in the reconstruction of Iraq after the war, and so I initially went to Kurdistan because it was safer at the time, and this is how I met the people and discovered their stories.

W*: What is the central theme here?
EL: What interests me is this idealisation of the freedom fighter in western society. Most governments here have a heroic vision of the Kurdish fighter, but at the same time they mostly see the refugee as a parasite. For this exhibition, I worked with real Kurdish soldiers on the battlefield and later as refugees in Europe. And within the seven years I photographed them, they go from hero to parasite. So how can we change our perception of a person when they cross the sea? I’m interested in the construction of this vision, and I’m trying to deconstruct this vision.

W*: Your Paris Photo exhibition opened with two powerful large-scale images from your series Théâtre de guerre (‘Theatre of war’). Your subjects, the Kurdish combatants, are staging dramatic, stylised scenes from classical war paintings. Why create these measured, slow images that contrast with the speed and urgency central to photojournalism?
EL: I took inspiration from the paintings of the Franco-Prussian wars, which influenced the representation of war photography. This was a defeated war, and so showed scenes of the real soldiers fighting not only the victory of the generals. I staged this in Iraq, where I asked the Kurdish guerrilla fighters to act out their battle scenes – replacing their reality within the context of the classical painting.

W*: This must have been tricky to stage given the area is a battlefield. So why take the risk and create these elaborate images?
EL: We are lucky that no one tried to attack us during the photoshoot, with the process taking only 15 minutes before we ran for shelter. These images are central to the exhibition as I am interested in the question of reality, the construction and theatricalisation of war picture. These images look fake, because the movements are adapted from a painting, but they are photographed in a place of war using real fighters. So, the question is: is it true or not?

W*: In complete contrast, you follow these with simple images of land and sea.
EL: The first shaky handheld video depicts the crossing between Syria and Turkey – the journey taken by those fleeing the war in Syria, and the moment when the civilians become refugees. The photograph that follow then captures a small section of the Mediterranean where a lot of them disappear. I was heading to Lesbos, the island where refugees typically land. Just before I got there my friend Foad, a Kurdish fighter, messaged to say he is now in Turkey, will cross the sea and see me shortly. He never arrived. He disappeared in the sea. This project is a tribute to him.

W*: Why include a snapshot of the Statue of Liberty on the harbour of Lesbos here?
EL: When I asked refugees what they recall from Lesbos, they say this statue, because it reminds them of New York’s Statue of Liberty. There is a connection to past immigration, to history here.

W*: The exhibition concludes with a series of fading blue renderings, made through the old cyanotype photographic printing process. Why did you choose for these images to be ephemeral?
EL: I wanted to create pictures that will gradually fade. The blue monochrome becomes a double metaphor – the sea where so many lives are lost, where a lot of refugees disappear. But it is also the colour of Europe, and the refugees who make it will be part of the future of Europe.

W*: This is a complex, expressive project and viewed together, these photographs and moving images form a compelling narrative. Your work is deeply considered, with authenticity central to this exhibition.
EL: Yes, it took a long time to make these personal connections and form trust. It was important for me to give a different vision, not the one offered by photojournalism but by art. Art has a real place in society; as artists we have a public space and with this comes responsibility. Art cannot change society directly, but with art you can influence people’s perceptions.

W*: What is your next project?
EL: Working on the theme of climate – constructing different fights against climate change.

INFORMATION

emericlhuisset.com; bmwgroup.com; parisphoto.com

Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini since its first iteration in 2017, the BMW Open Work initiative challenges artists to push the limits of their practice, utilising new innovations in technology and design. Paris-based artist Camille Blatrix has been tasked with this year’s commission, which will be unveiled at Frieze art fair (3 – 6 October). He teamed up with BMW Individual, the company’s specialised division for car customisation, which has allowed him to ‘harness unparalleled technical knowledge, skills and facilities in a truly open-ended way’.

We caught up with Blatrix to find out more about the project...

W*: Tell us about your commission for BMW Open Work.
Camille Blatrix: The commission is to me, a good opportunity to confront my artistic practice with an industrial product – in this case, a car. This confrontation excites me to think about the relation between an object of desire (the car, with defined functionality), and one that is more mental, emotional. Working together with BMW Individual, we created an object using car making processes and technology, bringing them towards abstraction. The output of this process is an installation, titled Sirens.

The car and the sculpture will be displayed together, one in front of the other, face to face. The car will light the sculpture and the inner parts of the sculpture will be also lit – they are in a dance of repulsion and seduction. Looking at the sculpture, also titled Siren, you are presented with a super clean surface, like a soft shell, very seductive, inspired by the front of a car but the back side is more organic, more like a cavity with a strange and dangerous object shaking inside. For me the sculpture has two faces: a seductive one and a dangerous one. I drew on the myth of Ulysses and the sirens as a loose narrative, structuring this idea of constant attraction and rejection.

What attracted you to work specifically with BMW’s car customisation department?
BMW Individual is the department that makes cars unique and personal, and in my work I’m interested in individual feelings – especially the emotions induced by everyday objects. The contrast between standardised machines and the emotions we associate with them through use is really fascinating, such as driving fast to feel free. I like the idea that choosing the colour of your car can deepen the process of emotional appropriation, even if the core of the machine is exactly the same. This idea of personalising a generic object is interesting to me, like being served a cup at Starbucks with your name handwritten on it.

Did you incorporate any new technical processes through this collaboration?
For the first time I used textiles, more specifically Alcantara. It’s a material I was previously afraid of, but during my visit I was amazed by BMW’s techniques and the way they cover sharp and industrial shapes with leather to make them smooth and comfortable. I thought this contrast between the leather interior and aggressive exterior of the car was perfect for the project and this idea of double-sided sculpture.

Among other things, your work is rooted in manufacturing and production. Where does this interest stem from?
I think it’s a very naturalist approach. I live in a big city so every day, when I open my window, I see people at speed trying to interact with weird machines and dealing with highly technological objects. I hope one day that when I open my window I will see trees and people fishing.

What does desire mean to you?
Desire to me is being scared. The first time I saw my wife, I realised I have never been so scared in my life – my whole body was shaking. Talking to her was the most dangerous and vertiginous thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t sleep for a week before our first date. That’s desire: attraction and danger. But if you experience danger – which is not easy – you will discover the most beautiful feelings you’ve ever had. I guess some people can experience this with objects and products, a phone or a car.

There may have been grumbles from within the Frankfurt motor show about fewer exhibitors than in previous years and protests outside about the automotive sector’s contribution to climate change, but say what you will about the biennial German event, it still has the power to attract major attention and warrants scrutiny.

All the big German brands rolled out significant models, most notably VW’s ID.3 – its first made-to-measure full-electric car and the first of at least six from the same modular platform – that suggests it really does want to put its Dieselgate scandal-blighted past behind it. To signal the symbolic shift VW even unveiled a new, more humble 2D version of its formerly shiny 3D one. Electric power was king everywhere at the show. Even Land Rover’s long-awaited new Defender 4x4 – previously a very chuggy and usually no-nonsense diesel vehicle – now boasts a mild hybrid version plus a plug-in hybrid to follow, alongside its traditional petrol and diesel offerings.

Beyond the established Western marques, Chinese newcomer brands were more numerous than at previous European shows – with both Wey and Byton the most convincing. In particular, the 48-inch wide infotainment screen on Byton’s production-ready M-Byte impressed with its ambition and software, and is unmatched by any other maker in the world right now (the interior screen of Honda’s endearing ‘e’ city car also unveiled in Frankfurt, is the nearest). Both should deliver their cars to customers by mid-2020.

The appetite for such high-tech EVs is out there, demand outstrips supply in many cases, so now the carmakers need to deliver on their promise in sufficient numbers, and be matched by public charging infrastructure. Out of five main halls populated by vehicle manufacturers, here are Wallpaper’s 2019 Frankfurt top six unveils…

Volkswagen ID.3

The positive news from VW’s stand was the reveal of the production-ready ID.3 with most of the charm of its conceptual forebear intact. The product design-inspired and Golf-sized five-seat hatch is the start of an all-electric family which will be produced in the millions and spawn a large saloon, several SUVs, a 21st camper van and possibly a beach buggy and a racing car too. Jump inside the ID.3 and apart from the high-tech screens the design is noticeably simple and pared back. ‘It’s about the democratisation of electric mobility to get the price point down,’ head of design Klaus Bischoff explains, ‘and also at the end of its lifespan it’s then easier to dismantle and recycle.’ UK prices should start from circa £27,000 and begin in mid-2020, with home-charging wallboxes from £300. VW says the ID.3 is as important to its history as the Beetle and the Golf and it might just be proved right – which after years of being in the wrong over emissions cheating – is a good thing.

Land Rover Defender

We’ve had to wait a long time for this most famous vehicle silhouette to be refreshed. Two concepts for a new Defender were shown in 2011 and the basic shape dates back to the very start of the brand in 1948. But looking at all those influences, the production-ready new Defender stays pretty true to what endeared it to so many. Some critics feel the new design doesn’t look rugged enough, but its boxy and functional proportions remain, practical steel wheels are an option and the new model will surely still have the necessary skills to ‘go-anywhere’, albeit costing a little more money than before. The commercial van-back version will starts from £35,000 rising to £40,000 for the six-seat 90 edition and £45,240 for the 110 version with five-, six- or 5+2-seat configuration possibilities.

Mercedes-Benz Vision EQS

The Vision EQS concept limousine was the headline news on the Mercedes stand and is significant as the first design on a new electric platform which will lead to many other luxury EV production models. It’s also crucial to the ambition of Mercedes’ parent company Daimler and also announced in Frankfurt, to become CO2-neutral by 2039. The Vision EQS continues Mercedes’ quiet sophistication in design approach too. ‘Everybody is still putting slashes and creases on the sides of their cars while we do simple and clean designs,’ Gorden Wagener, chief design officer told us. ‘We vary that for all our luxury cars but the EQ models should be the most progressive.’

The large battery pack required for a longer-distance EV is accommodated and visually hidden between a considerably lengthened wheelbase and by using larger wheels, while in side view the car is unified by a silhouette that has become almost a single arc, (or what Mercedes calls a ‘one-bow’ design, as in a rainbow shape). Either way, Wagener promises 80 per cent of the Vision EQS’s design will make it through to the production EQS due circa 2022 and will sell alongside the brand’s next S-Class limousine, not replace it.

Porsche Taycan

Porsche is one step ahead of Mercedes on its luxury electric saloon journey, unveiling its four-seater Taycan production EV ready to buy now and true to the Mission E concept of 2015 that prefaced it. The interior features a modern design with frameless driver display – the bulky cowl on previous models has been dispensed with as Porsche found a way to manage without by adding a sunglasses-like polarisation effect on top of the screen glass to avoid unwanted reflections. And by moving some of the battery packs to the outer edges, rear passengers’ feet effectively sit within a hollowed-out section, thus allowing them to sit lower and the roofline to remain swoopy. The Taycan is not for the masses – what Porsche is? – but a technical tour de force nonetheless and a big psychological leap for the previously combustion-engined stalwarts.

Hyundai 45 Concept

Another brand looking to the past to find inspiration for the future at Frankfurt was Korean brand Hyundai. Its 45 concept paid homage to the number of years since its significant Pony Coupe concept of 1974 designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the independent design legend also behind the first VW Golf, Fiat Panda and DeLorean DMC-12. Behind the nostalgia of its retro lighting effects and angular proportions, the 2019 concept is superbly modern in execution and has a wonderful lounge-like interior enhanced by a louvred sunroof which throws light into the space like natural sunlight can sometimes do through a blind in a domestic living room. No pre-production teaser this, but the 45 indicates Hyundai’s clean design approach underpinned by electric powertrains, is heading in a very tasteful direction.

BMW Vision M Next

Technically, BMW’s Vision M Next supercar was revealed to the world some weeks before Frankfurt but its public debut at the show was the best thing on the BMW stand by far, in the opinion of all the critics and experts we bumped into during motor show week. Hunkered down, angular and well-proportioned, with a convincing new interpretation of the brand’s famous kidney grille, plus a dynamically diagonal two-tone paint job.

INFORMATION

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Pictured top, Pininfarina Battista (around $2m). Pitched as Italy’s ‘most powerful ever sports car’, the Battista packs 1,900hp of battery power within its sleek frame. Go easy, and you’ll get a 280-mile range. pininfarina.com. Pictured bottom, Rivian R1T Truck (available in 2020). Boasting a 400-mile range, the Rivian Truck (also joined by a new SUV) is an all-American utility vehicle hoping to bring rugged, go-anywhere chic to the EV market. rivian.com. 

As of this month, you’ll be able to put down a deposit on a brand new Volkswagen ID, a Golf-sized all-electric vehicle that comes pre-loaded with a weight of expectations. The car itself won’t be shown to the public until this September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, and this sight-unseen marketing strategy is hitherto unknown for a volume car manufacturer. Two things have changed the automotive landscape in the past decade. The first is the unpredictable combination of aspiration, ego, innovation and bottomless funds that has driven the American manufacturer Tesla to the forefront of the industry. The second is the fallout from the Volkswagen emissions scandal, a corporate cluster-bomb that had the unintended consequence of vastly accelerating change by killing off the very fuel it was trying to promote.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are now all the rage. At this year’s Geneva Motor Show, EVs were thick on the ground, from high-end sports cars to compact city runarounds, over-styled crossovers, outlandish luxury SUVs and conventional family cars. Almost overnight, the EV market has blossomed to fill every niche. For the industry, the shift to EVs is a no-brainer; brands will flourish under a system that promotes zero-emission driving. Over a century’s worth of automotive heritage will simply shift gear to accommodate a new generation of car buyers. For governments, cities and the public, the answer isn’t so clear. Tax revenues from fuel sales look set to plummet, while congestion and auto-centric urban design will persist.

Pictured top, Citroën Ami One (concept only). Citroën’s Ami One is a nod to the French firm’s innovative small city cars of the mid 20th-century. The two-seater is aimed squarely at the urban market. citroen.com. Pictured bottom, Polestar 2 (from €59,900). An all-electric fastback design, the Polestar 2 promises a new approach to car ownership, with seamless digital integration and smart minimal design. polestar.com.

For aspirant carmakers, this shift seemed an opportunity. Building an auto brand from scratch is a colossal undertaking, but EVs have lowered the barrier to entry, with shared platforms and far lower start-up costs. Where Tesla led, others followed. The clean-slate approach of new names such as Lynk & Co, Byton, Nio, Faraday Future and the revived Fisker brand, or even the secretive Dyson project, suddenly all seemed to have a place at the table. That window of opportunity may be narrowing, though.

Volkswagen has dug deep into its corporate pockets and set about reinventing itself as an electric powerhouse. By 2028, it promises 70 new electric models across its various brands; it claims it will be a CO2-neutral company by 2050. Other manufacturers are also taking stock. In 2017 Volvo was first to announce that all its new cars launched from 2019 would be hybrids (either ‘mild’ or ‘plug-in’) or entirely electric, with 50 per cent of its fleet being pure electric by 2025. Honda also recently committed to the total electrification of its European sales output by 2025. Porsche (a Volkswagen subsidiary) is making a massive push, bringing the sleek Taycan saloon to market later this year, with other EVs to follow. Other makers are adopting the strategy of electrifying small cars and keeping hybrid tech for larger vehicles.

For many car owners, the EV is still an unknown. Big name support might bring confidence, but other companies are resorting to another tactic: pure temptation. Electric vehicles represent a new design opportunity in an image-obsessed industry. BMW’s i division debuted in 2013 with two defiantly distinctive models, the i3 and the i8. Jaguar’s i-Pace is the style-obsessed manufacturer’s most glamorous and desirable car, while debut EVs from Audi, Mercedes, Mini, Hyundai and Kia all major heavily on design. Honda is bringing out a chic little city car in 2020, previewed by the delightful e Prototype, while other quirky urban electrics include Quadro’s eQooder (bolstered by a collaboration with Tod’s), Citroën’s Ami One, Seat’s Minimó and Fiat’s Concept Centoventi (a rather late entry for a company with gold-star heritage in the urban sector). Brands such as Polestar and Lynk & Co (both owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely, which also owns Volvo) combine contemporary design with new ownership models, reasoning that future drivers might not need to have 24-hour access or responsibility for their own vehicle.

Other start-ups are going further still to bring EVs into every conceivable niche. Rivian is hoping to create an ‘electric adventure vehicle’ sector. The American company’s R1S SUV and R1T pick-up truck are due on the road towards the end of next year and boast a 400-mile range (‘San Francisco to Yosemite and back’). Rivian’s vice president of vehicle design, Jeff Hammoud, describes an emphasis on design from the outset. ‘The first thing we paid attention to is the proportion,’ he says, explaining that the company’s EV platform (which it may license out) allows for a plethora of body styles and functions. Branding is also consciously different. ‘Trucks have grilles to communicate strength and power – they tend to be very big. We don’t need a grille, but we have kept everything intelligent and blunt. That identity also has to scale into the future.’

Hammoud describes Rivian’s style as a ‘Patagonia jacket, not an Armani suit’, emphasising the brand’s inherent functionalism. The rebirth of Lagonda, on the other hand, is pitched at the consumer of luxury attire. Part of Aston Martin since 1947, Lagonda resurfaces in 2021 with an SUV, previewed at Geneva by the All-Terrain Concept. Purely electric from the outset, the target is the Rolls-Royce market and the ethos is contemporary luxury, underpinned by cutting-edge craft, materials and tech. ‘We aim to reimagine luxury travel in a way that could only be done in the 21st century,’ says Gerhard Fourie, Aston Martin Lagonda’s director of marketing and brand strategy. ‘We don’t see luxury and technology at opposing sides of the spectrum; together they can create wonderful experiences.’ Luxury buyers seem keen to embrace the new. ‘We obviously get the strongest reaction from customers who are open to change,’ Fourie admits. ‘They have strong views on design and quite a healthy relationship with the technology in their lives – I’d say they are “technology enabled” rather than “technology obsessed”.’

Pictured top, Lagonda All-Terrain Concept car (available 2021). Lagonda’s All-Terrain Concept will hit the market in 2021 as the first luxury electric SUV. The British brand, revived in 2018 by Aston Martin, is majoring on design and quality. lagonda.com. Pictured bottom, Honda e Prototype (available 2019). Inspired by the original Honda Civic, this prototype previews Honda’s ultra-compact city car, a neat four-door with retro styling, a chic interior and, of course, zero emissions. honda.com

Also at the high end you have the Pininfarina Battista, an electric hypercar that’s out to steal the super-rich away from their Ferraris. ‘If we want to do justice to the brand we have to start where people perceive us,’ says Automobili Pininfarina’s CEO Michael Perschke, who describes the 89-year-old design house as the ‘Château Lafite of car design’. The Battista – named after the brand’s founder, Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina – is intended to be the ‘most powerful Italian sports car ever made’. With a motor in each wheel, the car will have a scarcely credible 1,900hp (over 25 per cent more than its conventionally powered rival, the Bugatti Chiron). ‘The design is a balance between radical technology and timeless Pininfarina design,’ says Perschke. ‘We want people to fall in love with an electric car for the first time.’

For well over a century, the motor car has been a totem of identity as much as a mode of transport, embedded for better or worse within society and culture. The success of all these cars depends on the premise that the automobile is here to stay, yet calls to curb or cut out car use are given increasingly serious consideration. Early EV adopters might have already reaped all the available rewards, sucking up the rebates, subsidies, free parking spots and absence of tolls. The other as yet unanswered question is that of charging. Although manufacturers are helping new networks seed across the road system, what’s really needed is a top-down overhaul of park and charge infrastructure, from city streets to supermarkets. That’s a whole different story. What’s certain is that for a time at least we’ll have more cars, not fewer, as EVs blur the lines between concept and reality and find new ways of seducing the drivers of the future. 

As originally featured in the June 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*243)

Germany is making design news. In our April 2019 issue (W*241), we shined a light on its bold new Bauhaus Museum, and its pioneering fashion collectives redefining everyday dressing. Here, from the supplement, we explore the country's power surge of electrifying autos.

BMW 530e iPerformance (pictured top)

BMW’s electric strategy seems to be taking two routes. On the one hand, you have the acclaimed i3 and i8 – still two of the most futuristic cars on the road some eight years after the designs were first seen. And on the other, you have the slow, inexorable hybridisation of every other model in the fleet. The new 530e iPerformance is a case in point. As a plug-in hybrid, it leaves it down to the driver whether to make the most of EV power, offering up a more than serviceable petrol alternative if the batteries are flat. Make the most of both options, however, and you have a hyper-efficient business saloon, full of cutting-edge but discreet technology. It drives with the spirited verve that defines every BMW saloon, while encouraging you to make the most energy-efficient progress you possibly can. From £49,950, bmw.com

Mercedes-Benz EQC

Mercedes-Benz has launched a dedicated electric sub-brand, EQ, to focus its EV strategy (there are already a host of hybrid variants of the marque’s regular models). The EQC is the first production model to appear, a relatively conservative, big SUV that doesn’t break any moulds but instead offers a familiar form to those wavering between old-school engines and the zero-emission future. In fact rather sleeker than its combustion-engined siblings, the EQC benefits from a more minimalist touch. Access to the Ionity fast-charge network and a projected range of 280 miles make it competitive, while the slick evolution of the Mercedes-Benz interior will also win fans. Expect more EQ models in the coming months, both big and small, topped by a rumoured all-electric alternative to the flagship S-Class saloon. Approximately £60,000-£70,000, mercedes-benz.com/EQ

Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo

A concept that’s not far from reality, Porsche’s Mission E Cross Turismo is related to the upcoming Taycan – the marque’s first all-electric production car – but has a slightly higher ride and an extended luggage compartment. Porsche is already a master of hybrid tech, as seen in the 918 supercar, the Panamera, the Cayenne and the forthcoming 911; its pure EVs will take things further. To retain its status as the world’s biggest sports car-maker, Porsche needs to make its Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo EVs ultra-desirable. As a result, its designers have spent half a decade honing the Taycan, starting with the original Mission E concept in 2015. The model will have a fast-charge system that will give 80 per cent range in just 15 minutes, using the Ionity network. Variants are sure to follow, all with Porsche levels of performance as standard. The concept seen here could be a part of a major shift in performance motoring. Concept only, porsche.com

Volkswagen e-Golf

Despite Volkswagen’s garage-full of new electric cars due to roll out at the start of the next decade, there are still plenty of takers for the simplest option: an electric Golf. The e-Golf has been a long-term project, with the first prototypes arriving in 2011. Since then, it has continued to evolve and improve its range, to the point that it is a truly credible alternative to the combustion-engine classic. At one point, the e-Golf was the best-selling car in EV-mad Norway, for example. However, despite its appeal, this may be your last chance, at least for a while, to grab one. While a Golf Mk8 will be released this year, the e-Golf is likely to give way to the company’s new ID range of pure electric cars. From £32,550, vw.com

As originally featured in the April 2019 issue of Wallaper* (W*241)

Thomas Demand likes cars. And he really likes car designers. The German artist has an acute appreciation of the unique challenges they face and the role they play in shaping the future of our society. ‘If you are a car designer, you have to predict the future,’ explains Demand, who has been living in LA for the last nine years, a city built around auto-dependency. ‘This is an amazing task when you realise they are designing at least three years ahead of any official launch; then that car has to be around and relevant for at least another ten years. So they are thinking up to 15 years ahead. Considering how fast things change today, I find this mesmerising.’

Demand’s insight is informed by a ten-year friendship with BMW Group’s head of design, Adrian van Hooydonk. The pair first met in 2005 at the artist’s Berlin studio; then, in 2009, Demand invited van Hooydonk to lecture during his show at the Neue Nationalgalerie. ‘Adrian spoke about how cities will change in relation to the introduction of electric cars. In fact, he talked about the future in general and how he sees it, but not as a corporate person. We hardly ever talk about corporate issues.’

Van Hooydonk makes sure he is plugged into the larger creative engine. ‘During my time at BMW, I’ve tried to stay in touch with other fields of creativity, to discuss ideas, and I now have a very interesting network of creative individuals such as Olafur Eliasson, Rem Koolhaas, Patricia Urquiola and, of course, Thomas, who are all pushing hard in their respective fields,’ he says. ‘Every time we meet, we talk about art, culture and society as a whole. They are interested in everything going on in society and very interested in cars, which are still one of the most important parts of modern culture. I’ve always felt that we can benefit from this. It helps me judge whether what we are doing is relevant or going to be relevant in the future and, every now and then, doing a project together firms up those ties.

‘Thomas and I always thought that one day we’d do something together, and when I started this new project – quite a radical concept vehicle we are calling the Vision M Next – I thought, well, this could be the one. So I asked him.’ A collaboration with BMW had been on Demand’s mind too, but he told van Hooydonk it would depend on the car. ‘I suggested he just go to our California studio so we could show him on our screens what we are working on,’ says van Hooydonk. There was no physical car to walk around or colour schemes chosen, but Demand liked what he saw. ‘Thomas is very quick – he’ll tell you immediately yes or no. There’s no in-between.’

‘The technology for visualisation in the car industry is astonishing,’ Demand enthuses. ‘They use the best 3D projections and virtual reality, so I was interested to check that out.’ He spent hours just inspecting details: ‘I selected the really enigmatic parts of the car – the least branded and most interesting in how the different surfaces and planes get intertwined.’ From there, he constructed his customary life-size cardboard sculptures, which are then photographed to produce the final artworks. ‘I’ve always had in mind that my work could make good teaser images – rather than those classic teasers that use a little torch to highlight the silhouette. Everyone does those now. They can be really tedious,’ Demand continues. ‘Unlike traditional photography, which tends to look at existing, real things, most of my work documents non-existing things. So when this opportunity arose I thought, “Oh this is cool. I can be part of the visual vocabulary of the future and it could be rather beautiful.”’

Images of the ‘real’ BMW Vision M Next have now been released, and can be viewed below. ‘When you see the car, I think you’ll totally recognise the idea,’ Demand assures me. ‘My images are abstracted but they show the idea and the characteristics of the design, how the shapes intertwine. The idea is still visibly “I’m a car”. My images are a little more fetishistic perhaps – but isn’t that more what a car will become?’

Van Hooydonk agrees. ‘Artists see what’s going on in the world around them and then make people stop in their tracks to focus on one single thing for a moment, to make them think. That’s exactly what Thomas has done,’ he says. ‘He’s made these details larger than life somehow. When you see the car, you will immediately recognise all the things you have seen in Thomas’ images. I love the fact that, until you have seen the car, these are completely abstract art. I know every corner of this car, so it means more to me, but perhaps it’s more interesting for you to see this artwork before seeing the car.’

I selected the really enigmatic parts of the car – the least branded and most interesting

The new concept is far more than an abstraction for van Hooydonk and BMW. ‘Mobility is going through dramatic changes that I feel are irreversible,’ he says. ‘Cars are becoming more intelligent, which will lead to them being able to successfully drive autonomously.’ Last year, BMW presented another concept vehicle, the Vision iNext, essentially an autonomously driven – when in ‘Ease’ mode – living space. That car did allow the driver to take back control using ‘Boost’ mode. And the new car celebrates the hands-on pleasures of actually driving. ‘With the Vision M Next, we want to show how more intelligence and smart technology will actually help you enjoy the driving experience even more,’ van Hooydonk says. ‘Of course the whole industry is talking about how the vehicle will drive itself – and we did that last year with Vision iNext – but the BMW brand is built on the opposite: on a good and involved driving experience. We want to modernise that – to boost and intensify that experience. We are portraying a vision of how this visceral emotion, that a lot of people associate with mobility, won’t get lost. This concept is something that Thomas also finds interesting.

‘We have never done anything like this image project before, so I’m very excited. We’re introducing a vehicle that will be revealed two weeks after these images appear in Wallpaper*. I think they are intriguing and beautiful and are art, of course – I would hang them on the wall immediately.’ 

A version of this article originally appeared in the July 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*244)

INFORMATION

thomasdemandinfo; bmw.com