[BMWGirlFL]

Originally Posted by mbanck

ynguldyn wrote in November 2018: "If you want a clean sheet BEV, you'll have to wait for the I20. How closely the iNext concept reflects that future production car remains to be seen."
Of course, it's unclear what "clean sheet" means in comparison to the current and future CLAR and/or whether the iX sits on a bespoke platform. But it sounds like the iX is much more removed from the X5/X7 than the iX3/i4 are from their respective twin brothers/sisters (not least due to the unique body style).

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Yes. It's just that the eventuality you mention is a reality already for some other players. So there's significant value in understanding how far the iX has moved the ball.

A bit more ...

Strategy swing:
BMW is now relying on its own e-car platform
BMW is changing its electric strategy and is now developing its own electric drive platform. Works council chief Manfred Schoch, who had already requested this in the summer, prevails. The new platform is to be used in the new plant in Hungary after 2025.
BMW boss Oliver Zipse now wants to develop an electric platform.
BMW is moving away from its strategy of building all drives on the same platform and is now developing its own electrical architecture. "We will realign our vehicle architecture from the middle of the decade," announced CEO Oliver Zipse on Wednesday when the quarterly figures were presented . "Our new cluster architecture is geared towards electric drives." It will be used for the first time in the new plant in Hungary after 2025. "Our new plant in Hungary plays a key role here. The new BEV-centered architecture will start there from the middle of this decade."
"The aim is to create an overall optimum with the new architecture," added Zipse. Until now, BMW had relied on building all drives on one platform and then assembling the models on the same belt. This should make it possible to react flexibly to demand.
Works council put pressure on
In particular, the company's own works council had already called for the development of its own electric drive platform in the summer. "We can only fully exploit the advantages of an electric vehicle with our own e-architecture," said Works Council Chairman Manfred Schoch at the time. With the flexible architecture now in place for all drives, too many compromises would simply have to be made. "An e-platform would be urgently needed for BMW in order not to be overtaken by competitors from California or China."
Now Zipse is even making the topic a top priority. A new department has now been established for the development of the new e-platform. "This area reports directly to me," emphasized Zipse. "He is organizationally networked with all departments - markets, finance, procurement, development, production and sales. That gives us more control and makes us much faster - also when working with partners."
The new architecture will be used for the first time in the plant in Debrecen, Hungary, and the BMW will be newly constructed there. It will then be rolled out across the group. "The factory in Hungary will be the first to produce the architecture," said Zipse. "After that, the other locations will gradually be designed accordingly."
"Power of Choice" still applies
"The renewal of our platforms is due in any case from 2025", Zipse justified the decision. That is why it was decided not to simply extend the previous one, but to develop a new one that is specifically geared towards the requirements of electric cars. "We're developing a new architecture that assumes that the majority of cars built on this platform will be electric." The aim is to replace all current models with successors on the new platform "from 2025 to the middle of the next decade".
The new platform - Zipse prefers to speak of an "architecture" - is not being developed exclusively for e-cars. Zipse also wants to continue building combustion engines on the same platform. The focus in development is now on the electric car. "Of course, electrification will have a larger share here," said Zipse. "But the logic that we currently have with the Power of Choice approach is that we can offer every customer the drive they want, this approach will be retained."
Department established in July
"We expect that the demand for fully electric vehicles will continue to increase significantly from 2025 onwards. Exactly then - keyword timing - we will ignite phase three of our transformation," said Zipse. At the same time, he defended the previous approach: "For the current phase of our transformation up to 2025, the BMW Group is exactly right and robustly positioned: Our share of e-mobility is growing with maximum flexibility in production."
The department for the development of the new e-architecture was founded in July, according to the development director Frank Weber. So far, it has only been a "very small force preparing it".
Strategic swing indicated in July
"With our products and technologies, we are well positioned for the next few years," said Zipse. "This is what we want to be from the middle of the decade, when the conditions on the market have developed further. That is why we are already developing solutions for the period after 2025 and 2030. In our industry, timing is decisive in order to fully exploit the respective possibilities and to be able to invest specifically in the future at the same time.
Zipse had already indicated in July that the strategy could be changed. The next generation is thinking about switching to a pure e-platform, he said at the time when he presented his "Sustainability 2030" strategy. But that won't happen until 2026 at the earliest. At the same time he had defended the previous strategy. "We are well positioned for the next few years."

https://www.automobilwoche.de/articl...auto-plattform