BMW offered a sneak preview of its Neue Klasse architecture at the beginning of the year at CES in Las Vegas with the i Vision Dee concept. However, it won’t be until 2025 when the first production model will get its market launch. During the BMW Group Annual Conference 2023, the German luxury brand released additional details about how it intends to roll out its next-generation platform and expand it in the latter half of the decade.
Production will get underway at the new factory in Debrecen (Hungary) in the second half of 2025. In 2026, the Munich (Germany) plant will follow suit, with San Louis Potosi (Mexico) to kick off the assembly of NE-based cars from 2027. BMW says it’ll launch at least six EVs in the first 24 months, so they should all be available by the end of 2027 or early 2028.
Per a previous announcement, BMW will build at least six electric cars on the Neue Klasse platform at the Spartanburg factory in the United States by 2030. Meanwhile, the first EVs to use the all-new underpinnings will be a sedan and an SUV in the 3 Series segment. As a side note, the company already sells an i3 Sedan (only in China) and an iX3 (only in some markets) on the CLAR platform, but their successors should be truly global products.
With demand fueled by the Neue Klasse models following this year’s CLAR-based i5 Sedan as well as the 2024 iX2 and i5 Touring all announced today, BMW wants annual sales of electric vehicles to exceed 50% by 2030. Meanwhile, the immediate goal is to reach a 15% EV share in 2023. The percentage is projected to grow to 20% in 2024, 25% in 2025, and 33% in 2026.
As a final note, the BMW Group’s MINI and Rolls-Royce brands will abandon sales of vehicles will combustion engines by 2030. Before that happens, the Oxford-based marque will bolster its EV offerings this year with an electric Countryman while a smaller Aceman will follow in 2024. With the Spectre, RR is already offering an electric model.
Source: BMW
