The BMW 4 Series kidney grille won’t spread across the entire lineup
Arguably the hottest topic in the BMW world today is the kidney grille of the recently launched BMW 4 Series Coupe. The topic has been beaten to death, but yet, it comes up in every 4 Series conversation. So naturally, every BMW fan and customer wonders whether the huge grille will proliferate across BMW’s future lineup.
In a recent interview with Domagoj Dukec, BMW’s Head of Design, we brought up the controversial topic. According to the head designer, BMW should not fear a cannibalization of the entire product lineup.
“The kidneys are not changing for all BMWs,” Dukec said. “We wanted to give the 4 Series a very particular kidney grille.” At the same time, Dukec acknowledges that the 4 Series’ design is “not for everybody.”
Furthermore, Dukec says that the goal was to create a 4 Series product that stands on its own and is not a derivative of an existing model. In other words, his goal was not to create a smaller 8 Series. To add some flair on the design process and language, Dukec added that car design is “not about beauty or ugliness”, instead a successful design should be unmistakable.
Clearly, the new BMW 4 Series falls in that category.
In the future, Dukec hopes to further offer diversification between model lineups, giving them unique identities. But that doesn’t imply a huge kidney grille being slapped on the face of every upcoming BMW. Of course, there will be exceptions, like the upcoming BMW i4 (i440) which is based on the 4 Series Gran Coupe, the new M3/M4 or the future BMW 7 Series and the one-off X8 M.
For now, the new BMW 4 Series is a successful product, at least in the marketing world. It has been one of the most debated BMW products in the recent history, and arguably, the unveil of the month in the automotive world.
Whether mainstream customers will embrace the new 4 Series Coupe remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: BMW’s revolutionary design language is back!
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