TOP OF THE KLASSE

The Neue Klasse has arrived – and the iX3 doesn't just represent a giant leap forward for BMW, but the car industry as a whole

- WORDS PAUL HORRELL PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN WYCHERLEY

BMW doesn't really make 'all new' cars. Top of my head, just two cropped up in recent decades: the R50 Mini, the i3. BMW had the habit of using more shared parts than you'd guess. It almost always introduced a new car with an existing engine (see the front-drive 1-Series), while launching all new engines in facelift cars, rather than a wholly new one. That spreads the demands on engineers over a longer period, and squashes risk too. Even between generations, much is carried over: electrics, seats, transmissions. Keep calm and carry on.

Actually, peer back further and there was another important example of an all new car: the Neue Klasse (new class), a series of saloons and coupes from 1962 onward. They saved the company. BMW's range was oddly polarised – bubble cars and runabouts, and outdated luxury barges – but the Neue Klasse sporty saloons were a template for BMW to flourish ever since, and for so many rivals to copy.

Now we have the first of another Neue Klasse. This iX3 is wholly new. Above and beneath. Bumper to bumper. Ground to cloud.

From now on pretty well all of the electric BMWs, Minis and Rolls-Royces will use this technology. Even the cars with engines will take a lot from the Neue Klasse: the styling themes (even if they don't have the long wheelbase proportions) and the new dash interface and a lot of the driver support. That's 40-odd cars in the next two years.