Car Designer Frank Stephenson Dissects BMW iX Exterior
Stephenson, the man who penned the original BMW X5, shares brutally honest review of upcoming electric SAV.
Frank Stephenson headed the design departments of Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren and laid down the lines of cars such as the 2000s MINI, Maserati MC12 and Ferrari FXX. He’s also the man behind the look of the original X5, so he knows a thing or two about BMWs. He recently turned his trained eyes on the design of the upcoming 2022 BMW iX.
It should come as no surprise that one of the areas Stephenson zeroes in on is the electric Sports Activity Vehicle‘s front grille, aka sensor-filled “intelligence panel,” which fuses both kidneys into one massive piece.
It’s absolutely unavoidable and it makes total sense that Stephenson, who was with BMW when it still made cars with smaller, true twin-kidney grilles, has something to say about it. It’s not kind. At first, Stephenson’s diplomatic in the wording of his critique, but eventually uses the word “fugly.” Message received.
Things don’t get much better once Stephenson moves on to the iX’s profile. “You won’t see a lot of crease lines, a lot of tension lines, lines that go around the vehicle – anything like that. It’s basically just a solid shape.” There’s not necessarily anything wrong with simplicity, but in this case, the iX is missing something vital. Stephenson says, “When you stand back and look at this car from the side, it’s not moving. To me, that’s not the right way to design a moving object.”
Just as it did with the grille, BMW changed up the C-pillar on the iX. Instead of incorporating the distinctive “Hofmeister kink,” it decided to divide the pillar into two parts separated by a piece of black trim. Once again, Stephenson is not a fan. The same goes for when he analyzes the iX’s rear end. It starts off well, but gets worse further down.
Stephenson gives the iX’s exterior design an overall score of 3 out of 10 (although he’s much more complimentary about its interior). But there are more serious issues than just pure aesthetics. To him, it seems to be a car drawn by a product designer, not an automotive designer. Even worse, the iX is a sign that BMW’s design team needs to get back on track.
Ultimately, that’s just one seasoned professional’s opinion. Consumers may end up loving the iX when it arrives in dealerships. There were probably plenty of people who thought it was a bad idea for BMW to start producing an SUV…er…SAV, but the X5 is still here, more than 20 years later. Only time will tell.
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