BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk says the German company is once again at a critical turning point in its history – one he compares to the launch of the original Neue Klasse of the 1960s, which saved the brand from collapse.
In a candid discussion at the launch of the new BMW iX3 in Germany this week (the all-new mid-size electric SUV will be the first of 40 Neue Klasse-based model released by 2027), Mr van Hooydonk described the pressure of designing the next generation of BMW models, which will define the brand well into the next decade.
He likened the task to a racing driver sitting on the grid with thousands of people depending on them.
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“Well, yeah, I compared that to the job that a racing driver has the minute the racing driver gets in the car. Everybody tells him, you know, now it’s up to you. You have to do it now, because hundreds, thousands of engineers have prepared everything. Here it is. Now you have to do it. So that’s the moment that I just had here [with the launch of the ix3], it feels like that.”
According to Mr Hooydonk, even the BMW board doesn’t let him forget how high the stakes are.
“But like a racing driver, you have to be able to blend that all out. It’s true. Everybody will remind me every now and then, even the board tells me every now and then, ‘Remember, everything depends on you. Don’t mess it up, please’.”
Designing a new BMW isn’t something that can be walked back once the design is signed off, Mr van Hooydonk admitted.
“All the decisions that you’re making cannot be rolled back. At the time when we’re making a design decision for this car, it was three years ago. Who would have known what the world looks like today, and this design will still be on the road in 2030, and nobody knows what the world will look like then. So we felt that with the world changing so rapidly, we had to have courage to make a bigger change. And I think we did.”
Mr van Hooydonk admitted the stakes feel almost as high as they were in the 1960s, when BMW was on the verge of bankruptcy before the Neue Klasse sedans turned the company around.
“It is, yeah, and I agree there were times, let’s say in the ’60s, when BMW did the first Neue Klasse – that was an existential crisis for the company,” he said.
“BMW was nearly bankrupt. BMW was selling an Isetta and a V8 top limousine and nothing in between. And things didn’t look so good for BMW. Then BMW was nearly bought by Mercedes. I don’t think we would have enjoyed that very much.”
The original Neue Klasse cars – cleanly designed, modern, and affordable – were good enough to pull BMW back from the brink. Mr van Hooydonk sees today’s challenges in a similar light.
“At that time, I think there was a lot of pressure on the design department, and they came up with the Neue Klasse, and that then led BMW onto the strike of success. But BMW is a company that knows that success is never a given,” he said.
Despite rolling out a new design language, Mr van Hooydonk said BMW won’t fall into the trap of making every model look the same.
“We want to still offer choices within our model range to our customers, also because nowadays each segment is hard fought over, right? And sometimes you are competing with a competitor that makes only one car, but that’s right in your segment, and it could be a problem. So you need to really analyse each segment very well, and your offering up to date, and then plan your next move.”
He stressed variety will remain, even if the new design direction flows across all models.
“So it’s not as easy as maybe it once was, where once you have found something new, you can sort of easily [sell more cars]. That’s not how it goes. You have to really look at every car, and we are. So we will continue to offer some variety in our model range, but this will be the new look and feel for the family.”
BMW is hoping the same restless drive and innovation that created the Neue Klasse in the 1960s will carry the company through its most important decade yet.
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