One of the most thoughtfully conceived and designed concepts at the IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich was BMW’s i Vision Circular, which is the brand’s take a compact car for the year 2040 focused on sustainability and luxury. As with most electric vehicles, the 4 m (13 ft) long electric four-seater offers a lot of interior space for its small footprint.

It is designed with circular-economy principles to symbolize BMW Group’s plan to become the world’s most sustainable manufacturer in the premium mobility space. The car is one of five concept vehicles on two and four wheels that the group is presenting on the theme of individual urban mobility at the Munich event under the umbrella of electric mobility, digitalization, and sustainability.

BMW is aiming to reduce CO2 emissions throughout a vehicle’s life cycle. Besides electrifying its product portfolio and switching to renewable energy for manufacturing, the company is focusing particularly on circular-economy principles and the use of secondary materials obtained by recycling waste materials.

“The BMW i Vision Circular illustrates our all-encompassing, meticulous way of thinking when it comes to sustainable mobility,” explained Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “It symbolizes our ambition to be a pioneering force in the development of a circular economy.

“We will take the next big step towards achieving this with the ‘Neue Klasse’ models,” he continued. “We appreciate there are many BMW fans longing for a first foretaste of the Neue Klasse, but the BMW i Vision Circular isn’t it. I can promise, however, that, on a sustainability level, the Neue Klasse is being developed with the same mindset applied for the BMW i Vision Circular.”

There wasn’t much detail, technical or otherwise, on the electric power or autonomous aspects of the concept, but the company provided a lot on the “circularity” design and manufacturing focus.

“We gave thorough consideration to circularity from the outset during the design process for the BMW i Vision Circular,” explained Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design. “As a result, this Vision Vehicle is packed with innovative ideas for combining sustainability with a new, inspirational aesthetic; we call this approach ‘circular design.’”

Surprising, huh?

Part of the design aim was to achieve “100% use of recycled materials” and “100% recyclability.”

For instance, the concept’s solid-state battery would be manufactured almost entirely using materials sourced from the recycling loop. The company promised it could achieve much higher energy density with significantly reduced use of the most valuable resources in the process.

In addition, many systems and parts are designed to be disassembled quickly and easily at the end of the product life cycle.

 

Bold exterior

Instead of being painted, most of the concept’s exterior surfaces are in light-gold anodized secondary aluminum. At the rear, the bluish-purple surfaces are created by the heat treatment process used for the steel.

In front, the BMW kidney grille and headlights are interpreted with a digital surface. In the future, BMW says that digital design could make geometric variations in lights and bumpers redundant, helping to reduce the number of materials and tools required.

Instead of adding trim elements or badging, the brand logo is engraved on the front end and the vehicle badge is lasered on. The lower bumper area is manufactured from recycled plastic with a marbled surface.

The slightly translucent tires are made from sustainably cultivated natural rubber. Colored, recycled rubber particles are added to the compound for strengthening, create a terrazzo effect that purposefully highlights the reuse of materials.

The wheels are designed for minimal material usage. Their centers are more open for brake cooling and get more closed at the outer portions to ensure better aerodynamic efficiency.

At the rear, the display surfaces and light functions are integrated into a digital panel integrated into the dark glass tailgate, replicating the front approach. When the car is off, only the two-dimensional BMW logo is visible on the dark glass surface. The minimalist and aerodynamically optimized lower black bumper (like the front) is made from visibly recycled plastic.

 

Crystal inside

BMW says that the interior design shows what could be possible in the future with a more circular focus and purposeful material selection—and the kind of intriguing aesthetics that might emerge as a result.

“With the BMW i Vision Circular, we have set ourselves the challenge of designing a 100% circular vehicle, while at the same time meeting—and in some respects exceeding—our customers’ self-evident expectations when it comes to lifestyle and luxury,” explained Domagoj Dukec, Head of BMW Design.

“Mono-materials” and new joining techniques avoid the use of glues to ensure optimum suitability for dismantling and sorting at later life stages. To minimize the amount of waste, components are manufactured to fit exactly using processes such as 3D printing. Surplus materials are fed back into the materials cycle.

The interior was designed to be bright and welcoming with an open sense of space. The windshield extends backward into the glass roof to give front occupants the impression of sitting in the open air.

The two front passengers get separate lounge seats with integral head restraints, with upholstery made from recycled plastic and held within a light-gold aluminum frame. The slim front seat shells are made of recycled plastics, again with a terrazzo-look finish.

The user experience showcases a distant future with greater in-car intelligence and more sensors that react to users. The instrument panel is turned into a next-generation user interface, with its main attraction being a 3D-printed crystal body that reacts to hand movements with lighting effects.

The crystal body is bordered on both sides by naturally treated wood from externally certified sources. Gold-bronze metal elements made from anodized secondary aluminum connect the instrument panel to the A-pillars.

The information area normally expected in a central information display is located above the instrument panel at the base of the windshield, which is transformed into the primary information source and eliminates the need for any other displays in the interior.

The steering wheel rim is 3D-printed from wood powder, with an unconventional vertical spoke in gold-bronze. The hub incorporates another crystal interface area featuring backlighting and displays similar to
those on the instrument panel.

The slightly raised rear bench seat offers comfort for two with its softly padded side bolsters. The head-restraint cushions have audio speakers beneath them to give each seat its own dedicated sound zone. The seat’s woven Jacquard fabric is made from 100% recycled material and is bordered by an anodized aluminum frame in gold-bronze. In the C-pillar, a glass iDrive controller from a BMW iX gets a second life with a new function as a lamp.

Quick-release fasteners for the wheels, seats, and instrument panel, and a cord tie in the rear seat bench showcase the detachability of material connections in an aesthetically appealing form.

The deep-pile carpet used throughout the vehicle is manufactured from 100% recycled plastic.

The concept vehicle’s sound design is by composer Hans Zimmer and Renzo Vitale, Creative Director for Sound, BMW Group. It makes the car’s circularity audible, with each tone capturing such things as the movement of the exterior structures, interior areas, materials, lights, and visual animations.

 

Making connections

The concept is designed to be used in vehicle-to-grid scenarios, with the vehicle acting as a mobile energy-storage device and feeding power back to its surroundings like buildings and other infrastructure.

To help in the drive towards more sustainable urban mobility, the concept makes use of the available real-time and long-term traffic data to maximize efficiency. The sensor data and information gathered by individual vehicles can be shared with the entire fleet with the users’ consent so that all vehicles benefit from the resulting swarm intelligence.

Speed recommendations can be optimized to make better use of traffic light phases, riding the “green wave” of traffic flow that is forecasted more accurately. Traffic congestion can be minimized as a result of vehicles communicating with each other and with their environment. CO2 emissions caused by stop-start traffic or even searching for a parking spot would be reduced significantly across many users.