The saucy BMW Vision M Next makes its world premiere at the carmaker’s all-new #NEXTGen infotainment platform!
BMW has given a quick peek at its electric performance future by taking the veils off the BMW Vision M Next, which is essentially an electric sports car concept incorporating true ‘M genes’ while still running on electric power. Before we talk more on the BMW Vision M Next, let us keep you informed on the fact that BMW has actually chosen their all-new #NEXTGen platform for having its world premiere done!
The Vision MNext was officially revealed before a school of invited international journos, analysts and other stakeholders, at the BMW Welt in Munich, alongside 5 other scheduled world premieres and two highly emotional vision vehicles. The programme would see a close on 26th June 2019.
Coming back to the Vision M Next concept, the car embodies BMW’s true sports car DNA and stands out with its sporty design. The concept has been built upon the D+ACES (Design + Autonomous driving, Connectivity, Electrification and Services) blocks and would apparently be the ultimate driving machine of the future.
“The BMW Vision M NEXT provides a glimpse into the future of sporty driving,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. “Where the BMW Vision iNEXT illustrated how autonomous driving is set to transform life on board our vehicles, the BMW Vision M NEXT demonstrates how state-of-the-art technology can also make the experience of driving yourself purer and more emotionally engaging. In both models, the focus is firmly on the people inside. Design and technology make the ‘EASE’ and ‘BOOST’ experiences more natural and more intense.”
BMW seems to have intensely lucid plans for the future. Prototypes like the BMW Vision iNEXT concept and BMW Vision M NEXT hint at the carmaker’s ‘EASE’ and ‘BOOST’ concepts for the future, respectively. While the EASE imagines a living space on wheels, with all the desired comforts and entertainments, the BOOST is more of a driver-focussed concept whose sole intention is to cater the driver with hair-raising performance.
The Vision M NEXT draws much inspiration from the iconic BMW Turbo and groundbreaking BMW i8 in terms of design and features thoroughly futuristic cues like a low-slung, wedge-shaped silhouette, gullwing doors and a spellbinding colour scheme.
The vehicle features a Power PHEV drive system that lets the driver choose between electric all-wheel drive and pure rear wheel drive layouts. There are two electric motors, one powering each of the axles. To spice up things further, there is also a four-cylinder petrol engine sending power directly to the rear wheels.
The gas and electric mills combined, would push the car to 62 kph in just three seconds, just another ‘least uncommon’ figure of a 600hp machine! There is even a BOOST+ mode that lets out some added punch with the press of a button. The all-electric range of the car is around 62 miles, well, fairly ‘out of the world’ for a sports car of this kind!
Excitement sees no limits on the inside of the BMW M NEXT concept either, with the car getting an automatic door unlock function with face recognition tech in the first place. The cabin boasts of a stylish and minimalistic design and appears to be cut out from a single mould. The BMW Vision M NEXT interior essentially merges the driver and the vehicle into one.
The seats boast of flowing design and get foams that adjust to one’s body shape for optimum comfort and support. There is even shape memory function on offer, apparently too much to not die for!
Also worth talking in detail on, is the concept’s BOOST pod, that acts as the perfect bridge between the driver and the complex electronics and tech onboard the M NEXT. The system consists of three distinct visual tiers set up in the driver’s direct field of view, so as to cause minimal distraction. The horizontally set steering with two small displays forms the first plane, while a first of its kind Curved Glass Display wrapping around the steering wheel and a full-surface Augmented Reality Head-Up Display beautifully sewn into the windscreen form the second and third planes respectively.
BMW’s most ‘applauded for’ bit- the driver focus, sees a revolutionary leap ahead in the MNEXT, with the introduction of the new ‘Focus Logic’ that is as intelligent and smart as to actually adapt to the car’s speed! Yes, the information displayed for the driver go more focussed and into the direct field of view, as the speed goes up!
Thus, the Vision M NEXT is an absolute treat for the motoring soul in you. What remains to be seen now is whether this vision concept would make it unto the production line or not, fingers crossed…
