IAA Mobility Munich 2025: BMW: first models of the Neue Klasse
- The BMW assembly plant in Debrecen, Hungary, will finally start production at the end of 2025, producing a new generation of the BMW iX3, a fully electric D-segment SUV.
- Lets remind that the current electric iX3 has been produced in China since 2020 in a factory of its historical partner Brilliance, recently renamed Shineray. It is sold worldwide and could continue to be produced and sold in China after the launch at the end of 2025 of the new generation of the iX3 produced in Europe. (Note that the current battery electric iX3 is derived from the X3 model produced since 2010 in the USA (and still currently).
- The new version of the iX3 will differ from the fourth generation of the BMW X3 (G45) produced in the USA and launched in Europe in June 2025 because it will adopt a new platform dedicated to the carmaker's battery electric vehicles and a new style inspired by the "Neue Klasse" unveiled last year and seen again at the 2025 Paris Motor Show last October.
- The name "Neue Klasse" refers to the first BMW 1500 designed by designer Michelotti and presented in 1961 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which marked a new beginning for the Munich brand after difficult years.
- The success of the future iX3 will depend primarily on the success of electric SUVs in Europe in the second half of the 2020s. The current generation, produced in China at 45,000 units in 2021, 64,000 in 2022, 71,000 in 2023, and 50,000 in 2025, was mainly sold in China. The future iX3 will therefore have to expand its scope to Europe.