BMW to launch new sub-brand tomorrow

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By Brett Davis | February 21st, 2011

BMW has announced it will launch an all-new sub-brand tomorrow, rumoured to be called i-Setta. The new brand will also unveil the MegaCity Concept car which is said to be modelled on the original 1955 Isetta supermini.

Think of it as like the Mercedes-Benz small car division, smart car, BMW’s new ‘i-Setta’ brand will showcase very small city cars and other environmentally focused models. The first of which will be the MegaCity Concept.

The body of the concept is said to be made almost entirely of carbon fibre, weighing in at around 250kg to 300kg. According to a BMW enthusiast blog, the Megacity will also feature the same all-electric powertrain as the BMW 1 Series ActiveE CarAdvice reported on last week. This means power figures could hover around the 125kW mark, although it is early days yet and these are just rumours.

BMW said some time ago that it will be announcing a new sub-brand, previously saying,

“The Board has now decided: This auto Project iMegacity Vehicle will be launched on the market as a sub-brand of BMW. As BMW is the innovation driver within the Group, the decision for a sub-brand under BMW is the most logical step.”

We’ll be sure to provide the full details as soon as they are released tomorrow.

NacaYoda

125kW on a 300kg body?
You’re kidding.
They’ll never put that in the market.
It would polarise everything.
Motorbikes would look slow and expensive to run!

Steve-Poyza

That would be a pretty good intro to BMW’s new sub-brand though…
http://caradvice.com.au Brett Davis

Sorry, I might have confused you there. The body is said to weigh that amount, not the entire car. My mistake.
Brett

Silvabak

Only the body is 300 kg. Still if the whole thing came in at say 900kg, 125 kw would push it along pretty well.
speakmymind

iSettta?

megacity???

are you serious?
bangel

Good move , brings down the average consumption for their fleet , and would be spot on for congested euro cities , probably not applicable here as yet , maybe 10 years when oils dryng up .

ISETTA was a built under licence from the italian co in the fifties , saved BMW from death .
MF

I AM SO SICK OF THIS “I-” hype!

Ipod, Ipad, Iphone, I Snack 2.0, Hyundai i10-45, iGoogle… now i-Setta? I am so bored!

hyundaikia

iriver started iT

south koreans

(iKia?)

nickdl

Good idea. Hopefully this puts all rumours of a front-driving BMW to rest. I hope and assume that it will never happen.

Shak

They aren’t rumors. BMW have said that the generation after the next 1Series will switch to the MINI platform. They also have sub 1 Series sized vehicles in the pipeline, probably to fit into this Sub-Brand.

nickdl

There’s been rumours about a FWD BMW for 20 years…

Shak

Well, what ever name they give it, and however much power it has, we can sure of two things. It will be grossly overpriced. And it may take over two years after the Euro release to eventually get downunder.