FRANKFURT, Dec 7 — BMW has a very straightforward and logical naming convention for its vehicles, which also makes it very easy to guess what models might be coming along in future due to the obvious gaps that appear. It now turns out the German automaker has secured the naming rights for the badges i1 to i9 and iX1 to iX9, so it looks like a new raft of electrified cars and crossovers could be in the offing.
At the moment, BMW only has two cars using the i nomenclature, which are the fully electric i3 and the plug-in hybrid i8 sports car. It’s already known that two more electric models are in the pipeline, with one likely to be the i5 and the other the i9. As the German auto giant uses X to designate its SUV models, the securing of the rights to iX1 to iX9 inevitably leads to the conclusion a new range of electrified SUVs is soon to be announced too.
BMW CEO, Harald Krueger, announced at a press event in Munich recently that the company’s next SUV will be a new take on the current X3, which will be the iX3. Krueger said, “In 2020, we will launch the fully electric X3. In it, X and i come together.”
Although the CEO didn’t expand further on what other EV models are in development right now, it’s widely expected the brand’s electric flagship will be the i9. What BMW has confirmed is that the flagship model of the electric i brand, which is currently codenamed iNext, is set to go into production at the Dingolfing factory in Germany in 2021. A crossover iX9 version therefore appears inevitable, and probably not too long afterwards, considering the current industry shift toward battery-powered cars, and the profitability opportunities offered by producing even more SUV models. — AFP-Relaxnews
