BMW product boss Peter Henrich has defended the German car manufacturer’s bold new styling direction that has raised many objections for its gargantuan front kidney grilles.
During a recent interview with Autocar, Henrich said he was “convinced” the styling direction being headed by BMW design boss Adrian von Hooydonk has been a smart move and was positively received by customers.
“This is crucial for success. BMW customers are demanding,” he said. “They want to express something and are not afraid of vehicles with strong characters. They are looking for it. So we have decided to focus even more on strong characters and bold design. The design team with Adrian van Hooydonk do an excellent job in designing and defining that character,” he added.
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“The feedback received has been very positive. When first shown the X7, people said: ‘How big is the kidney grille?’ But customers never reacted like that and the car is a great success. It’s sold out for a very long period and people love it. There are always people specifically looking for something critical and afraid of something new. But we are very self-confident and will continue.”
It’s not just the BMW X7 that has caused debate regarding its grille. The latest 7-Series as well as the Concept 4 have both been critiqued for their in-your-face grille designs. Evidently, BMW isn’t concerned about what the public think and is more concerned with what its customers think.
One recent design concession the company has made relates to the forthcoming iNext. When previewed as a concept back in 2018, the SUV featured a joint kidney grille (below) housing all of the vehicle’s autonomous sensors. For the production model, BMW has opted for a grille with separate kidneys.
“We test what works aesthetically,” BMW design chief Domagoj Dukec said. “We connected the kidneys because of sensors, but we’ve decided not to do it. It wasn’t considered to be a BMW kidney grille any more. The grille is critical, so the iNext, the i4 and the iX3 will get separated kidneys – we spent the money to have sensors that can see through the chrome.”
