- BMW has started pre-production of its iX3-replacing Neue Klasse electric SUV in Hungary.
- Full-scale production will commence in late 2025.
- The model will be built in more than one factory around the world.
BMW is preparing to enter a new age of increasingly electrified vehicles, which is why it chose to resurrect the Neue Klasse moniker that originally designated a series of groundbreaking new models launched starting in 1962. Those models ended up defining BMW and shaping its image into what we know today, so the new Neue Klasse line, which will debut with an iX3 replacement in 2025, is seen as similarly pivotal for the company.
The automaker is erecting (or upgrading) factories around the world to build Neue Klasse vehicles, one of which is in Debrecen, Hungary. This brand-new plant has already started to build its first pre-production test vehicles, and it will soon begin to ramp up production, expecting to build the first customer vehicles in the latter part of next year.
But we don’t have to wait until then to see what the electric SUV codenamed NA5 will look like because its production body was fully revealed via leaked patent drawings. Autoweek published the images last week, and they show a vehicle that closely resembles the Vision Neue Klasse X, but it’s also considerably toned down and less aggressive.
Neue Klasse is the name of BMW’s new modular platform that will gradually phase out CLAR, the architecture used to underpin all the manufacturer's models from the 2 Series coupe to its largest offering, the X7. CLAR-based BMWs will remain in production until around the end of the decade, but the plan is for Neue Klasse to be used across the lineup.
We’re not completely sure Neue Klasse is an EV-only platform, though. BMW, like most other European automakers, has announced that it is pushing back the date when it goes pure-electric. BMW must have thought about at least making it possible to make range-extender EVs on the new platform, given that they seem to be rapidly growing in popularity. The company also has experience making EREVs after building the i3 Rex for several years.
Last year, BMW optimistically announced that it was going to achieve its goal of selling 50% EVs well before the self-imposed deadline of 2030. Now that seems unlikely, with EV sales not hitting predicted levels in most markets outside China, which is the only large market where electrification really seems to have taken off.
BMW is also investing $800 million to expand its plant in Mexico, which currently builds the CLAR-based 3 Series. The factory will begin building the same iX3-replacing electric SUV that just rolled off the production line in Hungary, but around two years later, in 2027. Additional Neue Klasse models will likely be produced in both factories in the next few years.
New generations of BMWs will also be built on the CLAR architecture, so the transition to Neue Klasse won’t be sudden. We’ve already seen spy photos of the next-generation combustion engine 3 Series codenamed G50, which will ride on an updated version of the platform that underpins the current model when it debuts around 2027. It will be sold alongside the pure-electric i3 previewed by the Vision Neue Klasse concept.
