Yahoo Autos Trademark Filing Suggests BMW Will Simplify its Arcane Naming System
If you were in the market for a small BMW sedan with a coupe-like shape and a level of performance between the track-ready M4 and the standard 3-Series, you want the M440i Gran Coupe. Unless you want your car to be an EV, in which case you want an i4 M40. If that sounds confusing to you, don't worry. It is confusing. The good news is that these names may not stick around for long.
To understand how bad the current naming convention is, we need to break both names down piece by piece. The full name of the gas-powered 4-series indicates a performance variant (M) of a certain car (4) with a certain level of power (40) and fuel injection (i). The full name of the electric car indicates an electric variant (i) of a certain car (4) in a performance variant (M) with a certain level of power (40). Three of those four distinctions mean exactly the same thing, but the order makes the i designation change from fuel injection on a gas engine to electric power. That is, obviously, confusing. In a world where BMW has serious plans to develop both EVs and gas-powered cars well into the future, it cannot continue.
The solution is apparently an entirely new branding system, one first reported by Britian's CAR Magazine says has been seen in trademark applications. Rather than divide EVs, gas-powered cars, and gas-powered SUVs (or SAVs, in BMW parlance) into different naming systems, the new system would standardize a simpler structure: a letter designating electric, a letter designating whether or not the vehicle is an SUV, a number designating model, and two numbers designating power output. The i or e at the end would in turn be dropped entirely.
In the X3, for instance, an EV with enough power to earn the still-unclear "30" designation could be called iX330. The "i" represents an EV, the "X" represents an SUV, the 3 represents a size, and the 30 represents the level of power. A gas-powered sedan with a similar performance level, by contrast, would simply be a 330. The lack of an "i" designates gas power, the lack of an "X" designates a non-SUV body style, and the numbers indicate both size and power output. The new system would standardize the entire BMW range but the true M cars, all while staying somewhat true to the traditional system in use since the 1970s.
The report does not detail how those mainline M cars would be badged. Right now, cars like the M3 are just given the letter M and their model designation, with suffixes like "Competition" and "CSL" added for higher-end models. If those names are simply treated like the three numbers at the end of every other name, an electric M3 could be an iM3. That works for sedans, but "iXM3" is confusing for an electric performance crossover. Would that instead be an "iX3 M"?
All of those questions and more will be answered when BMW actually starts producing EVs under this naming convention. According to the report, that should begin with the next generation of X3 crossover and 3-Series sedan.
Via the Drive.
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