What’s iNEXT? A quick lesson for wannabe carbon heroes

Reducing the carbon footprint is high on the agenda for almost every auto manufacturer these days.

With the potential for massive government fines and (even worse) the PR sting of perceived corporate indifference to environmental matters, every company is in a rush to be seen to be acting responsibly.

A latter-day effort to electrify — or at least hybridise — the model range is also item number one on many car company “to do” lists, not least BMW, which — in typical fashion — has reacted this week to the unveiling of arch-rival Mercedes-Benz’s EQC electric vehicle with a flurry of future product announcements, some feeding the EV zeitgeist, some not.

One rather more covert teaser campaign caught our attention; drip-fed information on the soonto-be-revealed BMW Vision iNEXT progressive vehicle concept.

The Bavarian auto geniuses are hot under the turtleneck sweater about this one: “iNEXT is our mobility proposition for the future, so it’s only logical that the BMW Vision iNEXT should be presented to a global audience in a fresh new style,” gushed Klaus Fro¨ hlich, a Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, in a press release about the unveiling of the concept.

Thing is though, the way ecoconscious BMW is going about drumming up interest in the iNEXT seems thoroughly old-school, especially where corporate emission responsibility is concerned.

BMW, you see, is launching the new vehicle concept to a global audience by flying it around the world in spectacular fashion, hosting glitzy unveiling events in Munich, New York, San Francisco and Beijing. The “specially prepared” Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777F — which appears to be both the transport for and the venue of the events — will cover four destinations on three continents in five days. That’s a lot of fuel burnt to show off a forwardthinking transport solution. How are you going to offset the carbon on this one, guys?

Let’s hope that pure-electric iX3 you have ready to roll out goes gangbusters when it arrives in showrooms.