BMW EV9 Design Study Takes The E9 Coupe Into The Electric Age

Automotive designer Chacko Abraham is an old acquaintance of ours who impressed us with a reinterpretation of Porsche’s 907 and 908 race cars for the electric era.

Now, he’s back with another virtual electromod, and this time he chose to focus on one of BMW’s most iconic cars, the E9 coupe built from 1968 to 1975 as part of the automaker’s New Class range. “The goal was to explore the possibility of a grand touring BMW that really took into consideration the human factors of classic coupes,” Chacko Abraham told CarScoops.

The main inspiration for this neo-retro BMW EV9 concept appears to be the E9 3.0 CS but the designer borrowed cues from other models as well. You can see many of the elegant coupe’s defining features reinterpreted in a contemporary way.

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Further refined front. BMW ev9 ?#bmw #bmwe9 #carinteriordesign #cardesign #cardesignerscommunity #industrialdesign #automotivedesign #sketchbook #blender3d

A post shared by Chacko Abraham (@chackonix) on Oct 15, 2020 at 1:34pm PDT

At the front, those include the inward-slanting nose with a pair of tiny kidney grilles flanked by round double LED headlights on each side, the 3.0 CSL-inspired front bumper, as well as the subtle turn signals filling the line between the bonnet and front fascia.

Seen from the side, BMW signature Hofmeister kink is preserved (unlike on the new 4 Series coupe), as is the pillar-less design of the doors. The wheels are not inspired by the E9 coupe but the M1 mid-engined supercar. As for the rear end, it’s got a Kamm tail with sleek horizontal LED taillights at the top and a diffuser-like element at the bottom.

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That’s a wrap. I have to say it was a dream to do this project…… I’ve been inspired by so many people and references ressense watches @ressence_watches , art martins @art__martins , Patricia urquiola @patricia_urquiola to name a few,a lot of my teammates ?…I still can’t believe that blender is free. Such a powerful tool will help kids from places like where I grew up follow their dreams. If you have ideas share it why stow them away! #transportationdesign #carinterior #carinteriordesign #industrialdesign #furnituredesign #huskchair #sketchbook #bmw #transportationinterior #automotivedesign #automotiveinteriordesign

A post shared by Chacko Abraham (@chackonix) on Oct 19, 2020 at 1:21am PDT

The interior is minimalist, with the designer focusing the attention on the four-spoke steering wheel and two round gauges above it. There’s no big screen inside and Chacko Abraham, who works as an interior designer for Ford and Lincoln, explained to us why he took this approach.

“I wanted to ask if in the near future a simple AI could handle the fine-tuning of all the features of a car and the users could simply focus on enjoying their journey”. Thoughts?

Note: This is an independent design study from Chacko Abraham that is in no way related to or endorsed by BMW.