BMW appears to be mulling a plan to rename its entire range as the German luxury car brand moves into the era of electric vehicles. The automaker recently applied for 48 new trademarks, including monikers such as iX750, i320, i530 and M350. Recent brand statements reveal that future cars from the automaker would come with the ‘i’ prefix. Letters such as ‘d’, ‘i’ or ‘e’ denote the different types of engines such as diesel, petrol or electrified hybrid.
It has been reported that the automaker recently filed trademarks with the German Patent and Trademark Office, indicating that the OEM may consider changes to its current product nomenclatures. However, remember that filing marks does not guarantee that the automaker will use these nomenclatures or implement these changes.
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Currently, BMW uses alphanumeric nicknames, in which the numbers indicate the model series, followed by a suffix denoting the type of powertrain. CarBuzz reports that BMW’s recent brand introductions include names like iX750, X750 and i750. While these badges may seem a little confusing, the iX750 may refer to an electric version of the X7, dubbed the iX7 and equipped with a “50” powertrain. Meanwhile, X750 could indicate an X7 with a ’50’ powertrain, while i750 would be used for an i7 with the ’50’ powertrain.
The automaker has ticked off other nomenclatures, which include the iX130, i120, i530 and i530 xDrive. The latter suggests that BMW will continue to use “xDrive” to denote models with its all-wheel drive system.
BMW’s new naming strategy could also be extended to its popular 3 Series range. Trademark filings reveal names such as i320, i330 and i340, indicating that they may be used to designate the various electric motors with which 3 Series models will be offered. In addition, BMW has also applied for the M350 trademark, where the absence of the “i” prefix in the name suggests that the M350 could be an internal combustion engine model , which could replace the current M340i.
Date of first publication: March 23, 2023, 09:54 IST
