[Auto] BMW's Vision Neue Klasse X concept channels 3.0 CSL and E30 vibes, teases next-gen iX3

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This is the BMW Vision Neue Klasse X, a thinly disguised teaser for the next-gen iX3, due to go on sale in the back half of 2025. It follows last year’s well-received – and restrained – saloon proposal, and deepens BMW’s radical new over-arching philosophy. “The Neue Klasse is much more than just a car or a specific concept,” BMW's chairman Oliver Zipse says. “It is redefining the BMW brand – and, at the same time, will be more BMW than ever.”

Interesting choice of words. During a recent preview, TopGear.com got up close and personal with the Vision X and can confirm that it’s confident, robust and very cleanly surfaced. Forget the recent adventures in polarisation, the shock value here is that the Vision X looks a lot like a BMW – a wholly modern one, designed from the ground up to be electric. It’s notably cab-backward in stance, relies on sculptural qualities rather than graphics for impact, and has an impressively low beltline.

 

The Neue Klasse, of course, is the ‘umbrella’ term for BMW’s next generation of electric cars. It takes its name from the 1962 saloon that helped turn the company’s fortunes round after some difficult years. The new Neue Klasse family is said to represent the single biggest investment BMW has ever made, a multi-billion euro bet on a new future. Invoking the past in this way is telling in itself, and BMW’s fanatical fan-base will be pleased to know that their eyes don’t deceive them: there is a definite 02 series vibe to the Vision X’s front end, and shades of 3.0 CSL and E30 in its glasshouse and overall form language.

The wheelbase is long, the front and rear overhangs nicely abbreviated. “We wanted to define the true-to-the-bone heritage of BMW,” head of i Design Kai Langer tells us, “and the Vision X is our pure essence. Try to remove a line from this car and you just won’t be able to. And look at the dash-to-axle ratio… it’s really short. The Vision X is clearly a BMW, even though it has completely different proportions.”

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/concept/bmws-vision-neue-klasse-x-concept-channels-30-csl-and-e30-vibes-teases-next-gen