BMW launches new ‘i’ brand focused on electrification, lower-case letters

BMW has unveiled its new sub-brand, ditching the propeller-inspired logo and going for something a little fresher, a little more modern. It’s the new “i” brand, a sub-marque much like the company’s M cars but, rather than focusing on performance, highlighting new technology to create cars that are “good for us” while also being “good for our planet.” It’s what the company calls “premium mobility,” cars for daily commuting that will let you “enjoy the finer things in life” without killing the planet in the process. The first two cars are the i3 (formerly known as the Megacity ) and the i8 (the auto formerly known as Vision EfficientDynamics ). The company is pledging we’ll be seeing these cars in production by 2013 and coyly specifies that three is not the smallest number nor eight the larger, meaning we should expect other models to fill that gap — just like the company’s current alphanumeric lineup. We’ll surely be learning more about these cars at Geneva in a few weeks, and if you think BMW is just being trendy using the lower-case i moniker, it did launch its iDrive controller back in September of 2001 — a month before the iPod was unveiled. BMW launches new ‘i’ brand focused on electrification, lower-case letters originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on February 21, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry