BMW plans to play spoiler to China, Tesla's market dominance with new EV

BMW is done sitting back while China floods the EV market. The German automaker just dropped the first of its next-gen models, the iX3 SUV, built under its new Neue Klasse platform.

These guys are targeting Tesla and Chinese competitors like BYD and Xpeng directly.

The debut came ahead of the Munich car show, where European brands are bracing for a showdown with cheaper Chinese EVs. BMW’s CEO, Oliver Zipse, told CNBC this week that this SUV is five years in the making and marks the start of a massive rollout.

“It is the most important and the biggest single investment we’ve done ever,” he said. “What you see here is only the first car of a series of models, which employs the same technologies.”

BMW rewires its cars to stay in the EV race

The Neue Klasse platform isn’t just a new design, BMW has rebuilt the car’s entire brain. The company ditched separate hardware modules and went with what they call superbrain architecture, a single centralized computing system that handles everything from driving automation to infotainment, temperature, and seat control.

BMW says this digital setup has 20 times more processing power than its last generation of vehicles. Zipse sees this as a response to what Tesla and China have done with software-first vehicles. Tesla, BYD, and Xpeng have made fast moves in building cars around tech. BMW knows it has to catch up, and fast.

“There is fierce competition, especially price competition in China,” Zipse said. “There are a lot of new players in the market [and] there is a tough fight about market share.”

That’s not just talk either. You see, companies like Xiaomi and BYD are pushing affordable, high-tech models that look good and charge fast. Tesla already beat BMW once with the Model 3, Zipse doesn’t want a repeat.

BMW is banking on its brand value to help it hold ground in the segments that matter.

“BMW is a promise,” he said. “The brand is a promise to have the highest possible quality, to have the latest technology, and to be very customer orientated.”

He also said they don’t need to chase every market segment, but the ones they go after, they plan to dominate. Right now, BMW holds just over 3% of the global market.

The company isn’t pulling back like some others. While tariffs, supply chain headaches, and political risk have shaken the auto world, especially with Donald Trump’s trade threats, BMW is pushing forward.

The Neue Klasse name goes back to the 1960s when BMW used it to bounce back from near-collapse. This time, it’s being used again, but with electric power and software at the center.

Shares are up about 13% year-to-date.

iX3 SUV aims for longer range and faster charging than Tesla

The numbers on the iX3 say it all. The SUV is being built in Debrecen, Hungary, and according to BMW, it can go up to 800 kilometers (497 miles) on a single charge, tested under the European WLTP standard.

The charging capacity maxes out at 400 kilowatts, which means it can add a range equivalent to driving from New York to Washington, D.C., in just 10 minutes.

For comparison, Tesla’s Model Y Long Range tops out at 622 kilometers, and its charging speed caps at 250 kW. That’s a serious difference, and BMW knows it.

“This will be the benchmark of the industry,” Zipse said. He claimed that Neue Klasse will prove his firm “can build superior electric cars, and the rest of the market will have to answer.”

That’s a bold claim, but it’s not coming from nowhere. Back in 2019, when Zipse became CEO, Tesla was crawling out of what Elon Musk called “production hell.” Around then, Bloomberg ran a survey of 5,000 early Model 3 owners.

They found that a huge chunk had traded in their BMWs for Teslas. The i3 just wasn’t in the same league. It was smaller, slower, and couldn’t match Tesla on range or charging.

Things have changed. Early feedback on the iX3 and Neue Klasse models has been positive. Bernstein’s Stephen Reitman wrote that “the product convinces” and still sees BMW as “the Wayne Gretzky of the auto industry, skating to where the puck is going to be, not to where it’s been.” Whether that sticks remains to be seen, but BMW isn’t waiting for permission.

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