BMW roadster concept revealed

By Jack Rix

February 2011

It's open season for concept cars! This is BMW's Geneva show car - a two-seater roadster called the Vision ConnectedDrive. Its purpose is to present the latest evolution of design director Adrian van Hooydonk's layered styling language, and showcase a raft of cutting-edge technology that could debut on the forthcoming EfficientDynamics supercar and MegaCity electric city car.

The overall dimensions are typical for a BMW Roadster, with a stretched bonnet, long wheelbase and seats set well back towards the rear axle, but the front and rear treatment and body surfacing is entirely new. The round headlights sit more upright than usual, while the L-shaped rear lights preview a more sculptured look that will appear on production models in the near future.

In a nod to previous models, the ConnectedDrive uses electric sliding doors inspired by those seen on the Z1 roadster, which was built between 1989 and 1991. The double-layer doors open with the outer shell sliding forward into the bodywork and the rear shell retracting backwards, allowing the passengers to enter over a wide sill.

But it's technology that's key with this car. Numerous sensors mounted in the front and rear light clusters monitor the environment in front, behind and on both sides of the vehicle. These are capable of recognising people and other vehicles, and pass relevant information to the driver.

Multicoloured fibre-optic strands running around the cabin represent the flow of information, and are activated when a certain function is switched on. One of the reasons why a roadster body shape was chosen was to best show off this feature.

A new head-up display aims to represent information in an entirely new way. It projects a 3-D picture on the windscreen with layers on information, one behind the other - offering the most amount of data to the driver in the most efficient way possible. For example, the most important function will sit in the foreground, with less relevant information ghosted into the background.

According to BMW this car is a concept only, and there are no plans to spin off a production model from it, but all the technology you see is the fruit of its R&D department and will appear on showroom models in the future.

Also on the stand was the ActiveE - an electric version of the 1-Series Coupe. This is the second electric test vehicle from BMW, following the MINi E. At the heart of the ActiveE is a powerful electric synchronous motor delivering 168bhp and maximum torque of 250Nm. This can propels the car from 0-60mph in just nine seconds, while its top speed is electronically limited to 90mph.

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