BMW’s i Vision Circular concept thinks about sustainable car-making

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  This is the BMW I Vision Circular concept. It imagines the compact BMW of 2040, but the company says that the car's approach to sustainability will inform the forthcoming Neue Klasse, due in 2025. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

BMW provided flights to Munich and seven nights in hotels so we could attend IAA Mobility and then later this week drive its two new electric cars, the i4 and iX (which you'll be able to read about in the next few weeks). Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

MUNICH, GERMANY—The BMW i Vision Circular is not the company's new Neue Klasse. But the new concept, revealed this morning at IAA Mobility, explores idea which the company says will inform that electric vehicle, due in 2025.

Not so much in the way it looks, which is a shame since this compact one-box shape—described by a fellow journalist as a Cyber Twingo—is a refreshing break from oversized SUVs. Instead, it's the car's approach to sustainability that BMW is running with—"Circular" refers to the car's lifecycle, which aims to use entirely recycled materials resulting in a vehicle that is entirely recyclable too. Currently, BMW says that across its brands (which include Mini and Rolls-Royce), it's already at 30 percent recycled and reused materials.

"The BMW i Vision Circular illustrates our all-encompassing, meticulous way of thinking when it comes to sustainable mobility. It symbolises our ambition to be a pioneering force in the development of a circular economy," said BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse. "We lead the way for resource efficiency in production and we are seeking to extend this status to all stages of the vehicle life cycle. This is a question of economic sustainability too, as the current trend in commodity prices clearly shows the financial consequences in store for any industry that is reliant on finite resources."

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