Unveiled ahead of today’s opening of the 2023 IAA Munich Auto Show, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse is the latest iteration of the BMW Dee concept that was unveiled last year. It’s not quite a production car yet, but it clearly points to an electric variant of the next generation BMW 3 Series.

To be clear, BMW didn’t say that the next generation BMW 3 Series will be a battery EV-only model, neither did they say that the Neue Klasse will replace the current G20 generation 3 Series, at least not yet. Still, many signs are pointing towards that direction.

New era Neue Klasse 2.0 to reboot BMW’s core products – Electric, Circular, Digital

The most obvious hint is its name – Neue Klasse (New Class). Originally, the Neue Klasse was the collective name for a new range of post-war BMW products whose goal is to transform the company from a manufacturer that competes with Opel, to one that is on par with Mercedes-Benz.

The ’00 series (4-door sedans) and ’02 series (2-door sedans) of Neue Klasse sedans laid the foundation for the E12 generation 5 Series – the first BMW model to use the new nomenclature - and the E21 generation 3 Series, which went on to create the compact executive sedan segment of cars.

Now, in the cusp of the most intense automotive revolution in 100 years, the transition to CASE – Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric vehicles - BMW is once again counting on a new generation of Neue Klasse products, let’s call it Neue Klasse 2.0, to reboot the blue-white roundel badge into what BMW Group calls a Electric, Circular, and Digital future.

The BMW 3 Series is one of the most important product lines for the company. It's their bread and butter, and therefore the most risk averse one. BMW may do a lot of controversial things with the 4 Series, 7 Series, or X7, but the 3 Series will always toe the safe middle line.

A pivotal transformation represented by the Neue Klasse 2.0 will certainly have to include the 3 Series.

Vision Neue Klasse is a 2025 BMW 3 Series without a 3 Series name

Just as the BMW i7 and the 7 Series are the same cars with different powertrains, so should the next generation BMW 3 Series and the Neue Klasse sedan.

You can already draw parallels between the i4 and regular 4 Series, i5 and the next generation 5 Series, so it is only natural for the same parallel ICE / BEV models strategy to extend to the 3 Series.

Note that BMW already sells an i3 (not related to the discontinued carbon-fibre chassis hatchback of the same name) in China, but that’s not a global model.

Too many 3 Series’ heritage elements to ignore

The sedan previewed by the Vision Neue Klasse concept will enter production in 2025, at the company’s Debrecen plant in Hungary, followed by its plants in Munich, China and Mexico – the last three are all production sites for the current BMW 3 Series.

2025 is also more or less the year that the current G20 generation BMW 3 Series, which was first introduced in late 2018, will be replaced. It's hard to imagine BMW launching a new line of compact executive sedans that's not related to the 3 Series.

Also, Head of Design Adrian van Hooydonk described the Vision Neue Klasse’s sedan body style as a “2 and a half box” design, instead of traditional sedan’s 3 box styling. Look deeper, and you will find the Neue Klasse’s simple yet forward-dynamic lines have some hints of the E21 generation 3 Series – the proportions of the glasshouse, to the ‘two and a half box’ short boot and long bonnet side profile, short front and rear overhangs, and simple horizontal tail lights.

Fun fact: the signature BMW grille, which is traditionally trimmed in chrome, will in the future be illuminated, thus doing away with chrome materials, whose production process is energy intensive and requires industrial chemicals. Reducing unnecessary materials is part of BMW’s philosophy on circular economy. All future BMW models launched after the Neue Klasse will have their grille and headlight combined as one digital graphic element.

Inside, the Vision Neue Klasse's driver-focused centre display screen is angled for easy reach to the driver (and front passenger). For the first time in many years, the word ‘driver orientation’ is used by BMW’s public relations to describe a new BMW's driver’s cockpit.

‘Driver orientation’ refers to a driver-focused dashboard design used by BMW models between the '70s and 2000s. The design angles all controls, even air-conditioning vents, toward the driver. It was first seen in the first seen in the E21 3 Series and it remained a BMW design signature for decades, until requirements for double-cowl designs to accommodate iDrive screens in the late 2000s changed this.

In the Vision Neue Klasse, the centre display screen, steering wheel control buttons, 3D head-up display are combined to form the BMW Panoramic Vision – the next step in BMW’s iDrive user interface - following the principle of “Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel.”

Neue Klasse range to cover next generation X5 / iX too

CEO Oliver Zipse said BMW will launch no less than six Neue Klasse models in 24 months after 2025. Six models is a lot, that’s nearly half of BMW’s global model group range.

Clearly SUVs must be part of the plan. At the end of Zipse’s presentation of the Vision Neue Klasse, two heavily disguised electric SUV prototypes were shown, perhaps a next generation X5 / iX? One that combines the iX and X5 as one related model group, ala i7 and 7 Series?

The only reason the current generation iX is developed as a separate model from the X5 is because BMW cannot risk alienating a large group of its core customers in the US - where the X5 is an extremely important model – with a fully electric product that its American customers are not ready for.

By the time the current G05 generation X5, which was first introduced in 2018, is due for a replacement circa 2026 – 2027, a new Neue Klasse’s NK platform that can accommodate both combustion engines and battery-electric powertrains will be ready. With that, BMW will no longer a need to separate the iX from the X5.

Combustion engine 3 Series to be part of Neue Klasse - Electric-first, not electric-only

Unlike its other German peers, BMW doesn’t believe in a battery EV (BEV) only future. It has not committed to phasing out combustion engines. Its sister-brands MINI and Rolls-Royce however, will be BEV-only after 2030.

The global-focused BMW 3 Series covers a very diverse range of markets, and the company isn’t convinced that ditching combustion engines for one of its most important model is wise.

Thus, the 3 Series will most likely continue along its current trajectory, but there will be a fully electric i3 sedan.

CEO Oliver Zipse have said that the future cannot be built on battery EV technology alone. Speaking at March’s BMW Group Annual Conference 2023, Zipse said, “We believe that the mobility of the future also needs more than one leg to stand on, in addition to battery-electric drivetrains. We see hydrogen-electric vehicles as a meaningful complement to e-mobility – even if with something of a time lag. Hydrogen has a lot of potential. Globally and across all industries we are already on the way to becoming a hydrogen society. At BMW, we could even envision a production vehicle in the second half of this decade. Hydrogen could also be a possible drive technology for the Neue Klasse going forward. Technologically, we are ready.”