BMW hides tech under hood in 5-Series revamp
BMW AG’s new 5- Series sedan can drive itself at speeds as fast as 210 km per hour, turn up the radio at the wave of a hand and warn other cars of fog. But you might not know it has all that gadgetry by looking at it.
While BMW has packed one of its biggest profit makers with its latest technology, the styling is far more traditional.
Taking cues from the underwhelming 7- Series fl agship, the car sports a broad grille, chrome-framed side air vents and squinting double headlights.
“There’s the risk that the 5- Series will be somewhat yawn-inducing,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst with Evercore ISI. “I’m curious to see what they’ve learned from the 7- Series, which hasn’t been such a success with lukewarm sales and pricing.”
The rollout of the sedan is also an important test for Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger. While he took the reins just months before the larger 7- Series was introduced in 2015, the 5- Series came to fruition under his direction, and he needs a lift from the overhauled sedan – which also comes as a plug-in hybrid – to fund plans to develop a driverless electric car by 2021.
BMW is packing some of this next- generation technology into the 45,000- euro ( RM215,000) sedan, which is due to hit showrooms in February. In addition to self- driving features on highways, the car can tell other vehicles in the vicinity that it has turned on its fog lights to warn of low visibility. When parking, a camera focuses on nearby objects to help avoid collisions.
The head-up display, which projects speed and navigation directions on the lower part of the windshield, shows threedimensional images. Climate control and other functions are operated by touch screen rather than knobs and dials, while entertainment and communication features also respond to hand gestures.
Pointing a fi nger at the dashboard screen, for example, picks up a phone call. Less innovation is evident in the design, as BMW opted to play it safe rather than follow Mercedes with a more radical styling makeover.
“We haven’t completely overhauled our design language for the 5- Series,” Chief Financial Officer Friedrich Eichiner told reporters at the car’s official unveiling in Lisbon. “That’s not unusual when the predecessor was an undisputed hit.”