–Como, Italy
It’s not unfair to name BMW and Mercedes-Benz two sides of the identical coin. Each put forth a steadfastly Germanic and fiercely unbiased tackle luxurious, design, and efficiency that’s made them archrivals. Because the trade transitions to electrification, the 2 manufacturers are as soon as once more squaring off and, as soon as once more, are taking very totally different approaches.
Nowhere is that clearer than in how their EVs look, with Mercedes-Benz launching the EQ sub-brand, full with a selected design language and fashions. BMW, in the meantime, simply doesn’t actually get the logic in that. Or at the very least Head of BMW Model Design Domagoj Dukec doesn’t.
65 Images
“Why does an electrical automotive need to look totally different?” Dukec requested throughout a media roundtable eventually weekend’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, in Como, Italy. “I am the identical particular person. I would like the identical expertise. I’ll have the identical life. You understand, I do not need every thing to be utterly totally different. If it turns into totally different, then it is totally different as a result of it is sensible for everybody. We did not design a diesel totally different from a petroleum.”
Dukec’s feedback got here mere days earlier than BMW rolled out the 2024 5 Collection and the visually equivalent, all-electric i5 – and never lengthy after it took the identical strategy with the 7 Collection and i7. Actually, BMW’s solely electrical car that stands out, design-wise, is the iX, which has no combustion-powered equal to battle with. That’s left Dukec arguing that electrification has no actual affect on the liberty of design.
“The folks inside have the identical area. You may say there isn’t a engine within the entrance, however you continue to have motors, yeah? You could have an even bigger battery [and] you must put underbody elements – which might be there the place the battery is – some other place. And so our vehicles do not have a frunk. [But] you continue to want cooling. You continue to want all this stuff.”
Dukec means that sustainability doesn’t have to be a stylistic compromise, stating that Mercedes forces its clients to decide on between a standard gas-powered S-Class or a polarizing, all-electric EQS. In distinction, BMW is providing its clients a alternative of ICE or EV energy, however with constant design between the 2.
Whether or not you want BMW’s propulsion-agnostic styling – an strategy shared with Genesis’ Electrified G80 and GV70 by the way in which – is a separate query. Tell us whether or not you favor devoted EV visuals or a shared design language within the feedback.