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BMW Concept XM: Scares some people
Photo: AGNIESZKA-DOROSZEWICZ / BMW Group
A huge kidney grille in the front, four angular exhausts and a lot of edges and sharp lines in between: BMW has polarized the automotive world with the monstrous SUV Concept XM, presented at the Art Basel art fair in Miami.
The plug-in hybrid is said to appeal primarily to US customers.
He competes against cars like the Lamborghini Urus or the Bentley Bentayga.
Its dimensions are correspondingly lush: 5.11 meters long, 2.20 meters wide and 1.73 meters high.
Production of the series model is scheduled to start in the coming year, and customers will be there in the following year.
There was criticism of the Trumm on the net.
"The coke must be bad in Munich," etched author and mobility expert Don Dahlmann on Twitter.
»An SUV hybrid battleship with a ridiculous 80 km range and 750 (!) HP.
If BMW continues like this, they will be the next Nokia. "
Occasionally users praised the exterior of the car as courageous and consistent, BMW itself sees "an expressive silhouette full of presence".
But the outrage on the net predominates.
"
BMW presents the next generation of the Leopard tank," it said.
The car apparently scares some people.
"To be honest: As a driver of a small car, I often feel really threatened when I only see an aggressive face from the radiator grille in the rearview mirror," wrote a Twitter user.
"Not everything you learn from Tesla is good," wrote bicycle lobbyist Christian Stroch.
He obviously had Tesla's Cybertruck in mind, that massive electric pickup truck that looks like a tank from a science fiction movie.
Other users also drew this parallel.
BMW is by no means the only manufacturer that is entering the electric age with oversized vehicles.
For example, Ford is bringing out a battery-powered F150 pick-up, and General Motors is planning a new edition of the Hummer.
Many manufacturers are currently equipping heavy SUVs with plug-in hybrid drives in order to at least appear cleaner on paper and to meet environmental requirements.
»Probably more than 2.6 tons empty weight.
And yet this plug-in SUV from BMW will also be included in the statistics with fantastically low official consumption and CO₂ values «, criticized BUND traffic expert Jens Hilgenberg.
In particular, the ever larger kidneys in BMW models have been a nuisance to many fans for a while.
You miss understatement, but that is apparently not in demand on the US market or in Asia.
"The double kidney grille is the central brand identifier", BMW chief designer Domagoj Dukec defended the front look of cars like the i4 at the end of 2020.
»It's an iconic graphic, the shape of which has been varied over and over again over the decades.
In the new BMW 4 Series it is again vertical and very expressive - and therefore deliberately polarizing. "
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