Picture (tease) of the Day: BMW’s next-gen EV

Shareholders in BMW have been given a tantaslising “first glimpse” of the German automaker’s next generation all-electric vehicle – the BMW iNEXT – but it isn’t much to go on.

The “initial design concept” – that blue streak you see pictured above – was unveiled at the company’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday by chair of the board of management of BMW AG, Harald Krüger.

Krüger said more would be revealed of the pure-electric iNEXT later this year, when it is presented as a “Vision Vehicle,” before production begins of the EV from 2021, at BMW’s Plant Dingolfing in southern Bavaria.

According to a media release, the new technology flagship incorporates all of BMW’s major strategic areas of innovation in one road-ready vehicle.

“The iNEXT project is our building kit for the future. It will benefit the entire company and all our brands. For the first time, we are combining all key technologies for future mobility in one vehicle. The iNEXT is fully electric, fully connected and also offers highly automated driving,” Krüger said.

The reveal comes as BMW announces a bumper April result of a 52 per cent increase in EV sales, taking total numbers of EV sales under its various brands to more than 250,000. While sales for all its vehicles combined saw a modest rise of just 2.5 per cent, sales from the EV division – including hybrids – were up 41.7 per cent over the first four months of 2018, to a total of 36,692 vehicles.

In the month of April, sales of BMW i, BMW iPerformance and MINI Electric vehicles were up 52 per cent to 9,831, out of total company sales of nearly 200,000 for the month.

The company has also secured a licence to test autonomous vehicles on roads in China.