Few design debates have polarised car fans like BMW’s oversized kidney grilles. For the past decade, BMW doubled down on ever-larger front ends, despite criticism from traditionalists. The reason? China – BMW’s single largest market.
Chinese buyers like bold, imposing faces as way to get noticed. “People in certain parts of the world were asking for big grilles,” admits BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk. BMW didn’t want to disappoint customers that buy 700,000 of their cars every year and that demand directly shaped the brand’s design direction. Van Hooydonk even concedes that while the internet howled, “we never saw it in the sales figures.”
- Smaller kidney grille is being revived for a wider, more global appeal
- Latest sensor and radar hardware also allow for a more compact design
Neue Klasse marks a pivot
The new iX3 SUV, the first model on BMW’s revolutionary electric architecture which made its world debut at this month’s Munich Mobility Show, doesn’t wear the XXL grilles of the current iX or 7 Series. Nor does it have the substantially bigger grille of the X3, the iX3’s ICE sibling. Instead, it reverts to slimmer, more classic kidneys — proportions closer to BMWs of the 1970s. Why the shift?
Partly heritage, partly technology. Van Hooydonk says it was important that the Neue Klasse carried a grille “that is recognisable” worldwide, not just tailored for one region. At the same time, the latest sensor and radar hardware is now more compact, allowing designers to clean up the face without needing a giant housing to hide it.
There’s also a strategic readjustment. After a decade of record growth, BMW’s China sales are now under pressure, down over 15 percent in the first half of 2025. That makes it risky to design purely around Chinese tastes. Instead, Neue Klasse is meant to be a global reset: one design language, digital-first interiors, and proportions that can resonate everywhere.
BMW went big because China wanted it. But as van Hooydonk puts it, the future isn’t about size wars. “We will have various shapes and sizes of the grille but always with a clear BMW identity.”
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