BMW’s future products will be more varied, new design ethos will appear first on X2 crossover

BMW went through a decidedly boring phase wherein a lot of the cars they were offering looked similar to one other. Apparently, the automaker saw the downside of their cars sharing a certain look and so they chose to put an end to it. Similar to Audi’s long term plan to give each car its own identity, BMW seems to want the same for its models as well. This was confirmed after Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group styling boss, said that their future lineup will eventually feature a more varied appearance.

In an interview between Automotive News, van Hooydonk said that their next generation vehicles will have stronger characters that are easily distinguishable from others in the lineup. As for the styling of the future models, he described them to have fewer and flatter lines, but they will be sharper and more precise.

The very first model that will benefit from BMW’s new styling elements will be the upcoming X2 crossover. It will demonstrate van Hooydonk’s latest design principles and will be rounder despite the sharper lines. As you can see in the next generation 8 series that is pictured here, it combines a curvy appearance with sharper lines. That’s all for the exterior at least.

Moving inside the cabin, BMW’s plan is to follow the current trend which is to go for more updated, modern technology. This means getting rid of physical buttons. Simplifying the interior and the functions of the car has a greater meaning. As the cars become more intelligent, they will require less input.

Despite the fact that most BMW models today look similar to each other, this has not affected their overall sales. In 2017 alone, the automaker was able to deliver an impressive number of 2,088,283 units. That is 4.2 percent more than the number of vehicles they sold the year before that. However, BMW still has not beaten Mercedes’ sales volume for that year. With BMW’s new plan to make their vehicles look more different from each other, they hope to beat Mercedes’ annual sales by 2020.

As mentioned earlier, Audi has also experienced the same issue with their cars, because a lot of them tend to look alike - all with the same design elements. The reason why they stuck to this is because the Four Rings wanted their models to be recognized in emerging markets like China.

But now that the market already knows them, then they could already change their look. The first model that will be subjected to this change is the Q2. However, an electric crossover like the E-Tron Quattro should also receive updates on its looks.