It’s been precisely six years since BMW made a splash at the IAA show in Frankfurt with the Concept 4. It not only previewed the second-generation 4 Series, but also signaled the company’s desire to supersize its grille. Vertical kidneys were nothing new. They had been around for decades, originally debuting on the 303 midsize sedan in 1933. However, the daring show car from 2019 featured an attention-grabbing design with a far more striking look.
That was just the beginning. Supersized grilles later adopted horizontal kidneys on the X7 and XM. Even before the Concept 4, the G11 7 Series had already received a more imposing grille for its facelift. Since then, this radical design approach has sparked immense criticism online. But has it actually hurt sales? The BMW Group’s Head of Design doesn’t think so.
Speaking with CarExpert at IAA, this time in Munich, Adrian van Hooydonk said the bold grilles have actually lured in more buyers:
“There was no backlash from customers. Indeed, of course, we took note of all the negative comments, but we never saw it in the sales figures. Actually, quite the opposite. So in some way or form, we didn’t feel that we had to react.”
Of course, some would argue it’s impossible to precisely quantify how many customers BMW lost or gained after embracing jumbo-sized grilles. We will say 2023 was the company’s best year everwith 2,253,835 cars sold. It almost certainly attracted some buyers while alienating others. Chances are that many simply didn’t care about the front design, while others chose to ignore it and bought the car anyway.
Hooydonk explained it’s difficult for BMW to please everyone because people have different tastes. He mentioned China, where “people are still asking for big grilles,” while in other regions the demand is less pronounced. Despite the backlash on social media and websites, the Bavarian brand doesn’t regret going down this road. Spy shots of the G70 7 Series LCI and the next-generation G67 X7 have already revealed that the large kidneys are here to stay.
BMW will continue the kidney grille’s duality by offering both vertical and horizontal layouts, depending on the model. The iX3 uses the former setup, whereas next year’s I3 Sedan will adopt the latter. However, the fresh design language ushered in by the Neue Klasse appears to tone down the size of the kidneys. Next year’s G65 X5 will likely take after the new iX3, although the grille will probably be slightly larger to stay proportionate to the SUV’s bigger footprint.
There is one big-grille model that BMW will allegedly not renew. The XM is apparently not going to receive a second generation, although its oversized kidneys are likely not to blame. An indirect replacement could arrive in the form of a rugged SUVlikely with a vertical layout of the Neue Klasse-era grille.
Source: CarExpert
