BMW’s partnership with Momenta will soon be reflected in a production car. Both companies confirmed today that their jointly developed intelligent driving system will premiere in the next-generation BMW iX3, which will be built in China, and mass production will begin in 2026.
This will be the first BMW model to run Momenta’s end-to-end “flywheel” stack – a large neural network model that handles perception, planning and control in one flow. Instead of separate modules passing information back and forth, the system reads the environment, makes decisions, and executes them through a unified architecture. This type of setup makes more sense in China, where traffic behavior can change quickly and rules don’t always predict how people actually drive.
A China-specific architecture based on Momenta’s “flywheel” model
The Chinese-built iX3 will take a different path than the global version. In Europe, the New Class iX3 will launch with BMW’s latest Level 2+ driver assistance features: practical but highly automated, especially on highways. Industry insiders expect the China version to go one step further. With the stack of Momenta underneath it is described by sources as “Level 2++”.
BMW and Momenta have joint engineering teams working in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing to adapt the system to local conditions. The dense ring roads of Beijing, the complex expressways of Shanghai, the winters of Shenyang and the narrow urban districts of Nanjing all flow directly into the calibration work.
The actual need for testing is far greater. According to BMW, the system will be validated using more than 100 million kilometers of simulation, complemented by large-scale road tests conducted in accordance with BMW’s global safety standards. High frequency scenarios, unpredictable maneuvers and rare edge cases are all built into the loop.
How the China version goes beyond the European Level 2+ system
Momenta’s involvement is central to the functioning of this system. The company is one of the few true full-stack autonomous driving providers in China and follows a “one flywheel, two legs” strategy: mass-produced L2/L2+ systems on the one hand and data-driven L4 research on the other. The BMW program flows directly into this model. BMW’s contribution focuses on monitoring safety, the logic of driver interaction and the tuning that ensures the vehicle’s behavior remains predictable and consistent. The goal isn’t to automate everything – it’s to build a system that feels natural and trustworthy to someone driving in China every day.
Production of the China-specific New Class iX3 will begin at the BMW Brilliance factory in Shenyang in 2026, with market launch and global debut later this year. Deliveries in China are expected to begin in summer 2026. BMW has already announced that the China variant will have features specifically tailored to the market, including BMW’s custom LLM developed with Alibaba and the more advanced driving assistance system developed together with Momenta.
Once this Momenta-powered stack hits the market, it will no longer be limited to one model. BMW plans to expand it to other vehicles made in China. The company now joins Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Nissan in partnering with Momenta – another sign that global automakers are quickly adapting to China’s pace of smart driving and are no longer relying on simply porting global systems after the fact.
