- An image of BMW’s next ICE-powered X3 appears to have leaked online.
- SUV takes inspiration from XM flagship and features a strange pinstripe pattern on the grille.
- Computer geeks have been quick to notice grille’s similarity to a certain Swedish brand’s PC tower case.
BMW design controversies are nothing new, but two in a week? Hot on the heels of the new 1-Series that looks like an old Kia, here’s the new X3, that’s being compared to everything from an angry beaver to a Swedish PC housing.
The single image that has leaked online via several channels, including @wilkoblok on Instagram, appears to be a screen grab from a promotional video of the new combustion-powered X3 due later this year. The ICE X3 is a heavily revised version of the current SUV and so rides on the same CLAR platform, and will be joined in 2025 by an electric iX3 that’s the first BMW to use the brand’s Neue Klasse architecture.
Related: BMW Completes 2025 X3 Development As Official Reveal Draws Closer
The iX3 was previewed by the Vision Neue Klasse X SUV concept earlier this year, but this new combustion X3 features a very different face that seems to borrow more from the controversial XM flagship than the various Neue Klasse concepts.
Like the XM, it features a pair of large eight-sided kidney grilles set into a bluff, squared-off nose, although the headlights are one-piece units rather than split into two parts as on BMW’s most expensive cars. The shape of the grille and positioning relative to the lights has got some web commenters likening it to an angry beaver, but what seems to have really set keyboards alight is the pattern in the grille.
Combining a traditional vertical set of grille bars overlaid with another set running diagonally up and outwards from the license plate, the design has been likened to the pattern on the front of PC case from Swedish case-builder, Fractal. Or you might think it looks like a Wall Street banker dressed in a pinstripe suit crossing his arms in front of him.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this grille pattern. The new 1-Series revealed earlier this week also features the same design unless you go for the top dog M140. But in the hatch’s case the unusual orientation of the grille bars is less obvious because they’re black, rather than bright, as on this X3.
Compared with the departing X3, the new one gets a wider track and flush door handles, but the engine lineup will be very similar, being made up of 2.0-liter inline four and 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder motors, though expect more choice and more range from the PHEV variants, which should return to the U.S. market.
