BMW didn’t bring a new car reveal to the Shanghai Auto Show. Instead, it brought its most impressive development prototype yet to the show for a display that is a mix of Tony Hawk and future tech braggadocio.
BMW
BMW is a German luxury car and motorbike manufacturer and current owner of Mini, Rolls-Royce, and Alpina. With roots dating back to 1913 as Rapp Motorenwerke, it officially became Bayerische Motoren Werke in 1922 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. BMW’s first car was built in 1928 when it built the Austin 7 under license from Dixi, which was called the BMW 3/15. BMW grew into a manufacturer of premium and luxury automobiles, launching iconic nameplates like the 3 Series, 5 Series, and 7 Series, and is today known as one of the leading luxury automakers in the world, while the BMW M division is hailed as a leading manufacturer of performance cars.
- Founded
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1916
- Founder
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Karl Rapp
- Headquarters
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Munich, Germany
- Owned By
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Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
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Oliver Zipse
The German automaker brought the BMW Vision Driving Experience prototype to the event, to show the future of its cars, like the i4, with its Heart of Joy control system. And then drove it straight up a giant quarter-pipe just to show that it could.
Vision Driving Experience Is An Absolute Beast
We’ve spent time in the Vision Driving Experience already at the company’s experience track in Spartanburg, SC. The prototype four-motor car generates more than 13,000 lb-ft of torque (at the wheels), giving it an impressive ability to crush the occupants into its carbon fiber bucket seats.
It’s not that prodigious torque that lets the car drive up a 55-degree ramp, though. Even the Heart of Joy computer that brings ultra-quick control of the traction and stability control, power distribution, motor operation, and everything else dynamic all into one unit can’t make this thing drive up what is getting very close to a vertical climb.
The car’s active aerodynamics are what help it make that climb. Specifically, the fans that suck the Vision Driving Experience to the ground with 2,645 pounds of downforce. Crucially, the fans can pull the car to the road with that extreme effort even when the car is standing still. It can pull racecar levels of g’s in corners, and it can almost drive straight up a hill.
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Though the slope of the ramp changes as the car climbs, it peaks at 55 degrees when the car makes it to the 13-meter (42.7-foot) mark. Not that this ramp is exactly flat before that point, starting at 45 degrees.
Neue Klasse Design Gets A Glow Up
The last time we saw this car, it was heavily disguised with camouflage. This time it has its own special paintwork, showing off the Neue Klasse styling instead of hiding it. The paint is self-illuminating. It sucks up light whenever there’s some available. Then, when it’s dark, the color shows from a whitish yellow to full neon depending on how charged the paintwork is.
There’s an extra film on the rear of the car that BMW calls “magic film.” It’s activated by UV light, and it creates a gradient from yellow to orange to pink.
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Big tricks with a big deal car require a big show. This glow-in-the-dark prototype driving nearly straight up a wall, set to black light and neon highlights, is exactly the way to do it.
Oh, and some extra tech info about the car: BMW says that it can manage 98 percent of all braking using only regenerative braking. Not only is that 25 percent better than its current cars, but the system is smoother in operation now, too. We expect more exhibitions and details in the coming months, ahead of the Neue Klasse officially debuting later this year.
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