Design is a big deal with BMW. Iconic information such as kidney grilles, Hofmeister kinks and Quad headlights once dominated every model in the line-up. But these days are mostly in the past – we learned that in a short interview with three of the largest BMW design names in the game today. We come with Adrian van Hoydonk, Maximilian Missoni and Oliver Heilmer to learn a little more about BMW’s design stand in 2025.
Say goodbye to the “classic” BMW design; Supposedly they won’t miss it
Adrian van Hooydonk probably doesn’t need an introduction, but we will still do it. He is BMW design director and for over fifteen years. So he is a guy who knows something about what “classic BMW design” looks like. When asked whether we still have BMWs with “classic” design or not, Adrian does not crush any words: “No, we are not. New class is a starting point for a change in our formal language,” he said. “Not only the electric cars, but also the combustion cars.”
With regard to the design, Adrian is the only way to develop further, in further developing too “forward”. And he thinks that new class is a big leap. “I think you will see something very new in new class, I think. Almost as if we are skipping a generation and jumping a generation. So I will think that it will be.” All of this has happened without giving up the old BMW -DNA fully: “You can trace it back on our inheritance,” he begins. “You can trace it back from the 1960s by the BMW 1800. This is the BMW philosophy in a nutshell. We stay true to where we come, but we move forward.”
Max Missoni is already looking forward to the past
Maximilian Missoni is the latest face here. He monitors the design for the upper end of the BMW series, from the 5 Series to Alpina models. And at least part of the reason why he is here is new class. “One of the reasons why I joined the company [is] Because I understood that there is this courage to reinterpret what BMW Classic design can look like, “he said. As a memory, Missoni comes from Polestar, where he essentially shaped the brand’s design language we know today.
Missoni also had a lot to say where the electrification and the design carved. They probably remember a time when all electric vehicles looked drastically different from everything else on the street. He does it too. “There was the effort to say:” Hey, look at me. I am electrical. I’m different. “But I think we all now see that this was not a very sustainable kind of approach,” he says. “General trajectory is aimed at electrification, and a good car design is a good car design there.”
M design remains performance -oriented
Oliver Heilmer is the counterpart of Missoni for the entry level and monitors the design for the model up to the X3 and 3 series. But it also leads BMW M design. We asked: How will M approach the new class designs? “I think we always come from this perspective for M [design] When they talk about performance, he says. He says that, regardless of the drive train, “still remains an M car.”
How speedtop was made
The Speedtop shooting brake is a very pretty car, and its limited production run asks how it was made in the first place. “The idea started from the design department,” Addrian van Hooydonk begins. But it is a balancing act from there. “You have to include certain departments of the large company to ensure that the car drives like a BMW … Other departments you have to not Mix in, because then it only gets slow and complicated. “It sounds as if Van Hooydonk has bypassed bureaucracy, where it could, but it helps BMW that we talk about here. They love design.”
There are also other advantages to make special vehicles like this. Halo cars are increasingly making the entire brand. “I think the whole key was that they knew that this was a very special occasion and has something to do in the limited number, so as not to become co -delighted by our organization and not to be automatically automated, like a machine,” says Hooydonk. “Because it is not a machine at the other end, there are real people at the other end, customers.” Apparently most of the probably well-heeled Speedtop customers never looked after the price. “Most of them never asked me what it costs. They only said” I want it, “says Adrian.
New class IX3 is four months away – but there is still work to do
After all, it may seem surprising, but BMW is not quite ready with the vehicle that you will bring on the market in just four months. The “last phase of industrialization” is still underway, which mainly makes UI- and UX optimizations to ensure the delivery of a “product that was at dot”. We heard about cramming, but that feels a little ridiculous. Hopefully the polish will be shown when we finally have a shoot in the production of new class vehicles
