The BMW i Vision Dee is a window into the future of an electric 3 Series coming in 2025 on the Neue Klasse platform but the new ad goes all the way back to the E21 era. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be a big fan of the original 3er, complete with its cassette player (playing A-Ha’s “Take on Me”) and even the smoke coming out of the exhaust.

Dee, considered by BMW as being the “ultimate companion,” sees things differently. The first-generation 3 Series is apparently not digital enough for today’s complicated world. The Terminator then decides to invite an old buddy of his with a more complex car. David Hasselhoff makes a cameo appearance in his custom Pontiac Firebird Trans Am aka the KITT. Much like Dee, the Knight Industries Three Thousand featured in the popular 1980s show “Knight Rider” can talk to its owner.

Because Dee stands for “Digital Emotional Experience,” BMW argues it can connect to the owner far better than the E21 did. For example, the electric concept can project an image of the driver’s avatar onto the side window. It also has a built-in personal assistant and a configurable head-up display extending across the entire width of the windscreen. By the way, this sophisticated HUD is actually going into production in three years’ time on Neue Klasse EVs.

To cement a relationship with its owner, the i Vision Dee can express various moods through its digital kidney grille. This certainly doesn’t sound like the BMW we all fell in love with growing up, but it’s a brave new world out there where technology prevails and automakers are trying to one-up each other through innovations.

Speaking of interesting tech, the concept can also change its colors thanks to an evolution of the E Ink technology we originally saw last year on the iX Flow. The i Vision Dee’s exterior can have up to 32 colors instead of just black and white variations. Something called a BMW Mixed Reality Slider has sensors embedded into the dashboard to manage the level of content shown by the wide HUD.

Technology aside, the concept provides an early look at a globally available i3 Sedan coming around the middle of the decade. BMW will start production of Neue Klasse models in 2025 at the new Debrecen factory it’s currently building in Hungary. The plant in Munich will add at least one NE-based model in 2026 while Spartanburg will have six of them by 2030.

Source: BMW USA