Inside BMW’s Twin-Platform Technique: Neue Klasse, CLAR, and the Way forward for ICE

BMW has spent the higher a part of the final 5 years telling the world it’s all-in on electrification. Neue Klasse ideas. Devoted EV platforms. Huge guarantees about software-defined autos and a clear break from the previous.

And but, while you step again and take a look at the precise product roadmap taking form over the subsequent decade, a really totally different story emerges. One that’s way more pragmatic, and arguably way more attention-grabbing.

On the heart of all of it is a platform BMW refuses to let go of.

As you may see above, BMW’s product roadmap is nothing if not complicated. A combination of EV and ICE nearly throughout the vary, the portfolio has turn into extremely laborious to observe even for essentially the most diehard fan.

CLAR Is Not Going Wherever

Regardless of the narrative round Neue Klasse, BMW’s CLAR structure is proving to be remarkably resilient. Initially conceived as a versatile basis for combustion engines, CLAR has quietly advanced into some of the adaptable automobile platforms within the business.

Over the subsequent ten years, CLAR will proceed to underpin a few of BMW’s most necessary autos. That features the two Sequence, 3 Sequence, 4 Sequence, 5 Sequence, 7 Sequence, and almost the whole higher finish of the X lineup. Much more telling, CLAR will assist each ICE and EV variants concurrently for a lot of of those fashions.

This isn’t unintended.

BMW has been clear internally that combustion engines will stay a part of the product combine nicely into the 2030s, and probably past. Regulatory realities, uneven EV adoption throughout world markets, infrastructure challenges, and buyer demand all level in the identical course. A tough cease on ICE merely doesn’t make enterprise sense but.

CLAR offers BMW optionality. It permits the corporate to construct petrol, diesel, hybrid, and absolutely electrical autos on a single structure with out forcing untimely selections. In a world the place market circumstances preserve shifting, that flexibility is invaluable.

Neue Klasse Is a Guess, Not a Alternative

That doesn’t imply Neue Klasse is window dressing. Removed from it.

Neue Klasse will turn into the spine of BMW’s subsequent era of EVs, significantly in high-volume segments. Fashions just like the iX3, i3, i4, i5, and i7 will more and more migrate to the devoted NK platform as manufacturing scales and prices come down.

However what Neue Klasse will not be doing is killing CLAR.

As an alternative, BMW is working each methods in parallel. Neue Klasse handles the clean-sheet EV future. CLAR retains the current, and close to future, worthwhile and adaptable.

This dual-track method stands in stark distinction to rivals who rushed headlong into single-platform EV methods, solely to search out themselves uncovered when EV demand softened or incentives shifted.

The X4 Tells You Every part You Must Know

Maybe essentially the most revealing instance of BMW’s pondering is the X4.

The ICE X4 is successfully completed. Manufacturing ends with the present era, and there’s no direct combustion successor deliberate. As an alternative, the mannequin will stay on because the iX4, an EV-only coupe-style SUV constructed on Neue Klasse.

That call feels surgical somewhat than ideological.

Coupe SUVs are image-driven, style-led merchandise with fewer conventional patrons hooked up to combustion engines. Electrifying that area of interest first is sensible. In the meantime, core fashions just like the X5, X6, and X7 stay firmly dual-powertrain on CLAR, reflecting the place BMW nonetheless sees long-term ICE demand.

The Mid-2030s Query

Essentially the most fascinating a part of BMW’s technique will not be what occurs subsequent yr and even in 2028. It’s what occurs round 2034 or 2035.

By then, CLAR and UKL will likely be ageing architectures the Neue Klasse will likely be mature and the laws will likely be (hopefully) extra outlined.

At that time, BMW faces a essential determination.

Does it put money into a brand new era of combustion-capable platforms? Does it deeply revise CLAR and UKL to increase their life additional? Or does it lastly draw a tough line and transfer to EV-only architectures throughout the board? Given what course we’re headed in, we’d anticipate ICE to stay round far past 2035.

Both manner BMW is clearly protecting its choices open. And which may be the neatest transfer of all.

Slightly than betting the corporate on a single end result, BMW is constructing flexibility into its engineering, manufacturing, and product planning. CLAR’s continued life will not be a failure to decide to electrification. It’s an acknowledgment that the transition is not going to be clear, linear, or uniform.

If something, BMW’s technique suggests the corporate understands one thing many others are nonetheless studying the laborious manner: the longer term is (principally) electrical, however the highway to get there’s something however straight.