Munich. With the BMW i Vision Circular, the BMW Group is looking ahead to a compact BMW for the year 2040 that is focused squarely on sustainability and luxury.
The four-seater is fully electrically powered and offers a generous amount of interior space within its around four-metre-long footprint.
It has furthermore been designed according to circular economy principles across the board and therefore symbolises the BMW Group’s ambitious plan to become the world’s most sustainable manufacturer in the individual premium mobility space.
The Vision Vehicle is one of five different concept vehicles with which the BMW Group is presenting how it envisages individual urban mobility at the IAA Mobility 2021 event.
Under a single umbrella spanning electric mobility, digitalisation and sustainability, the five pioneering concepts create a versatile mobility mix on two and four wheels fuelled by sustainable thinking, which comprehensively addresses an extremely wide range of mobility needs in the face of fast-changing requirements and growing challenges.
Circular economy The BMW Group’s overriding aim as it strives to achieve climate neutrality is to reduce CO2 emissions throughout a vehicle’s entire life cycle. Besides electrifying the product portfolio and switching to renewable energy for manufacturing, the company is focusing particularly on circular economy principles and the use of secondary materials. These materials, such as secondary aluminium and secondary steel, can be obtained by recycling waste material and then reused.
The process for supplying secondary materials is far less harmful to the environment and carbon intensive compared to the extraction and manufacture of primary material. This can bring about a major improvement in a vehicle’s carbon footprint, especially on the supply chain side.
“The BMW i Vision Circular illustrates our allencompassing, meticulous way of thinking when it comes to sustainable mobility. It symbolises our ambition to be a pioneering force in the development of a circular economy,” explains Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
“I can promisethat, on a sustainability level, the ‘Neue Klasse’ is being developed with the same mindset applied for the BMW i Vision Circular.” The overriding design aim for the BMW i Vision Circular was to create a vehicle that is optimized for closed materials cycles and achieves 100% use of recycled materials / 100% recyclability.
Circular design “We gave thorough consideration to circularity from the outset during the design process for the BMW i Vision Circular. As a result, this Vision Vehicle is packed with innovative ideas for combining sustainability with a new, inspirational aesthetic – we call this approach ‘circular design’,” explains Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.
Circular design embraces the four principles of RE:THINK, RE:DUCE, RE:USE and RE:CYCLE. RE:THINK. Circular product design begins by thinking about things differently. For the BMW i Vision Circular this meant scrutinising processes and manufacturing technologies and thinking differently.
RE:DUCE. “I do more with less” has long been an integral part of the BMW i philosophy. The BMW i Vision Circular demonstrates this through the rigorously applied reduction in the number of component parts, material groups and surface finishes, dispensing completely with exterior paintwork, leather and chrome, for instance.
RE:USE. Ideally, a sustainable product will have a long lifespan, with a rich and enjoyable product experience making people a lot more enthusiastic about using the product – and using it for longer. One way of ensuring this happens is by incorporating digitality to create new experiences. The display options via digital display surfaces in the exterior and interior of a car and the availability of “option as a service” allow users to constantly bring something new to the vehicle.
RE:CYCLE. When it comes to the materials used, the focus with the BMW i Vision Circular is on recycled materials (“secondary first” approach) which are intended to be reused again at the end of the product life cycle. The laser-etched graphic in the centre of the quick-release fastener is made up of the letters of the word “circular” arranged in the form of a circle. A special socket wrench separates the component parts joined by the fastener with a single rotation.
The ‘joyful fusion’ fastener creates a theftproof and stable connection and, at the same time, allows many component parts of the vehicle to be dismantled with just a single tool. The rigorously applied circular design approach lends the BMW i Vision Circular a totally new and engaging aesthetic, while also showing that a high level of sustainability can go hand in hand with a luxurious appearance.
Re-interpreting classical icons – the front end The puristic front end clearly conveys the aesthetic power of circular design. Instead of having a chrome surround with bars, the kidney grille has been newly interpreted as a digital surface. The kidney surfaces extend across the entire width of the front end, merging the headlights and grille into an unmistakable “doubleicon” that will continue to be a clear BMW identifier. At the same time, the kidney surfaces are turned into a graphic interface.
In the future, digital design could make geometric variations in lights and bumpers redundant. A discreet line graphic on the kidney surfaces constitutes the sole decorative element in the front end. The BMW i Vision Circular has no other additive trim elements or badging of the sort currently used to signify quality. The brand logo on the front end is engraved and the vehicle badge is laser-etched.
A new silhouette The circular design approach exudes puristic clarity when viewing the car in profile too. The BMW i Vision Circular has a clear mono-volume design. The design language here is clear and accessible. The proportions, meanwhile, take BMW in a new direction. The vehicle extends in an unbroken volume from the front to rear axle, offering a generous breadth of interior usability within a small footprint. Even at a standstill, the rising roofline and a cowl panel pushed forward give the compact silhouette the appearance of surging dynamically down the road. The wheels form the outer limits of the vehicle, combining with the prominently flared wheel arches to produce a hunkered-down, sporty stance.