There's A Lot To Like About The BMW iNext Concept, But It's Not All Great

TopSpeed

By Sidd Dhimaan

Published Sep 18, 2018

The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY

After teasing us for what seems like ages, BMW has finally unveiled the iNEXT concept crossover. The production vehicle will be based on this concept, and will be up for grabs from 2021. Even though all seems hunky-dory about it, the iNEXT has left us with mixed thoughts. Here are a few.

The design has caught us off guard

Yes, we expected BMW to carry over its design philosophy, but what is this? It just doesn’t match with the car’s overall personality. The slim headlights give us an illusion of the grille being bigger than it actually is. It makes the iNEXT look like it’s dressed up like Bane from Batman for Halloween. Guess we might need a mask as well to subside the permanent agony we are going through.

Not a driver’s car... literally

BMW has added two drive modes; Ease - wherein the driver is void of any physical controls and lets the system take over the driving duties, and Boost – Where pedals pop up from the floor and the steering wheel comes out of the dash to let you take control of the car. While it may seem a safe approach to stay grounded while looking at the future, we feel it leaves BMW in a fix. Who are they going to cater to with this mixed approach? What’s their target market? Like they say, you tend to confuse a customer with more choices and then see him leave empty-handed.

Claimed range seems a little out of scope

According to Motortrend, BMW confirmed a range of 435 miles at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year. A rep said that the Bavarians will have an early production run of the flagship electric car to get a realistic figure of actual efficiency. Kudos to BMW if it can get it with a maximum deviation of 10-percent; but if anything more, the company will get major heat for this inadvertent publicity stunt.

Production car is a long time away

Only the concept pictures have been out, and no real-world tests have been made yet. Heck, even the production prototype is not ready! The production car is slated to be here in 2021, but BMW is already late to the party. BMW’s main rivals already have their cars out – Tesla with the Model X. There's also the Mercedes EQC, Jaguar I-Pace, and the upcoming Audi e-tron. The e-tron was expected to hit the roads later this year, but the arrests in the diesel fiasco have pushed the plans. However, it’s certainly going to be in showrooms before the iNEXT’s launch.

Do you think BMW went wrong with anything else? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.