BMW

Lifestyle / 17 Jun 2016

The Next 100 Years: BMW celebrates centenary with trio of concept cars

Most big corporations have a department dedicated to crystal ball gazing, but only the auto industry translates that fevered speculation into physical form in the shape of concept cars. To celebrate its centenary, the BMW Group has created a triumvirate...

Lifestyle / 27 May 2016

Mid-market masterpiece: BMW reveal the M2 Coupé

It won’t have escaped your notice that cars are getting bigger and bigger. BMW is not alone in seeing its model range undergo gradual inflation over the years. The new M2, at a modest 4.46m long, is longer and...

Lifestyle / 8 Jan 2016

All grown up: BMW introduce the new Mini Clubman

What do you do once you’ve re-built a brand from the bare bones of fond childhood memories and carefully re-interpreted design features, only to discover that the resulting creation has outgrown the cultural status of the original? Perhaps this is...

Art / 18 Dec 2015

BMW Art Journey reveals shortlisted creatives at Art Basel Miami Beach

It is easy to be cynical about corporate-sponsored art. Necessary even. But a lot of art wouldn’t get made without it. Some of it good. Elsewhere on this site you can read about Isaac Julien’s marvelous Stones Against Diamonds, a...

Lifestyle / 9 Dec 2015

Tokyo Motorshow count down of the top ten new automobiles

You can’t beat the Tokyo Motorshow for concept cars. Every two years the best Japanese car (and motorbike) manufacturers, plus a sprinkling of European and US brands, come up with new and thoughtful ideas for going faster (and slower, but...

Lifestyle / 4 Sep 2015

Executive decision

The ‘welcome carpet’ rolls out an expanse of white light to receive passengers. Once aboard, they can snuggle in the soft, quilted leather seats, trigger the vitality programme for some active massage, or release the foot rest and recline to...

Lifestyle / 12 Aug 2015

High climber: BMW X5 heads up the brand’s X family

In many respects, BMW have a lot to answer for when it comes to car design. While the Bavarian masters are still forging new markets for electric and hybrid cars with their award-winning ’i’ range, the company’s first foray into...

Lifestyle / 15 Jun 2015

Hot wheels: our highlights of the 2015 Concorso d’Eleganza in Villa d’Este

Simply put, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, on the shores of Italy’s Lake Como, is the world’s most exclusive automotive beauty pageant. The basic ingredients are thus: 50 or so of the rarest cars ever built, 30 of the most...

Lifestyle / 28 Apr 2015

BMW i: sustainable cities start to emerge

Creating a car company from scratch is not a simple undertaking. But that is effectively what BMW did when they launched the BMW i sub-brand back in 2011. Long before the i3 was simultaneously revealed around the world on 29...

Lifestyle / 21 Apr 2015

Modern mobility: Salone drives a new definition of car creativity

There was a time when carmakers came to Milan to observe. A handful of the more advanced designers would visit Salone del Mobile to be inspired by the wider creative community. This, however, is beginning to change, with an increasing...

Design / 6 Feb 2015

Alfredo Häberli and BMW unite to imagine a car of the future

BMW is strengthening its commitment to design through a new collaboration with Swiss Argentine designer Alfredo Häberli that is set to be unveiled in Milan during the Salone del Mobile this coming April. The project is the sixth in a series...

Lifestyle / 6 Jan 2015

BMW’s i8 is a perfectly executed exercise in futurism

For all the billions poured into R&D, the motor industry can still come across as a rather conservative place. Innovation is largely incremental and quantum leaps are few and far between, held in check by a thicket of regulations...