The BMW Neue Klasse family of EVs debuting in 2025 will feature a panoramic head-up display.
BMW showed the display, dubbed Panoramic Vision, Wednesday during its annual business conference. In what the company claims is an industry first, the display will span the windshield and show information to both the driver and front passenger, unlike current head-up displays, which only show information in the driver’s field of view.
The automaker claims a panoramic display, which was previewed in the i Vision Dee concept shown at CES earlier this year, is part of a “driver-centric” approach because it allows less-important information to be shown to the passenger instead of the driver.
BMW Panoramic Vision head-up display
“We are taking our proven ‘eyes on the road, hands on the wheel’ slogan to a new level,” BMW development boss Frank Weber said in a statement.
The Neue Klasse (German for “new class”) EVs are named after a family models from the 1960s that effectively saved BMW and set the template for the next few decades of the automaker’s development. BMW hopes the electric Neue Klasse will be similarly transformative.
BMW said that it would release six different model variants of the Neue Klasse in the first 24 months, all based on a dedicated EV architecture. It’s a shift from BMW’s current strategy of relying mostly on platforms shared with internal-combustion models. Another major shift is the use of cylindrical battery cells and cell-to-pack tech. BMW believes this will enable a 30% range boost, as well as faster charging.
BMW i Vision Dee concept
The Neue Klasse EVs may not be as expensive relative to the market as today’s models, in keeping with BMW CEO Oliver Zipse’s intention to make affordable electric cars. In a 2022 interview, Zipse said the lower end of the market was too important to abandon in the shift to EVs.
BMW plans to start building Neue Klasse EVs at a new factory in Debrecen, Hungary, starting in 2025 and at an existing plant in Munich, Germany, starting in 2026. Some will also be made in Mexico, at BMW’s existing factory in San Luis Potosí, beginning in 2027. That will ramp up with raw materials sourced from within North America and potentially qualify them for the $7,500 Clean Vehicle Credit.
