BMW is still a long way from starting production of its iNext, which it describes as its next-generation electric car, but it is already making a lot of progress toward production and it released new images of the iNext electric car pre-production prototype.

The German automaker unveiled the concept iNext vehicle a year ago.

Unfortunately, they didn’t confirm many details about the vehicle, but they have been teasing it for years and talked about its position in the market.

BMW’s head of sales and marketing, Ian Robertson, previously shared doubts about Tesla’s ability to produce Model 3 in volume at $35,000 and in the process, he said that the iNext would be the real competitor in the segment.

But the iNext is actually a crossover and not a sedan like the Model 3, which leads us to believe that BMW is talking about the price point more than the segment.

As for range, BMW didn’t go into details, but executives have previously talked about an insane 435-mile range.

The promise of a low price and long-range has us interested, but BMW says that the iNext is not coming to market until 2021.

However, they are already working on pre-production prototypes “to be made using close-to-series processes” at a pilot plant in its Research & Innovation Centre (FIZ).

They released several images of the latest pre-production iNext prototypes at this facility:

The images give us a better look at the vehicle, which is definetly toned down from the very futuristic-look of the iNext concept unveiled last year:

Udo Hänle, BMW’s head of Production Integration and the person in charge of the Pilot Plant for the iNext, commented on the road to production:

“Preparing a fully electric vehicle for series production is an exciting but challenging task. By the time of the official start of production, we will have built as many as 100 prototypes of the BMW iNEXT. Until then, the Pilot Plant will use a range of new innovations to streamline and speed up our processes even further. We are also already preparing our first production associates from Plant Dingolfing to work on the new product.”

Some of those new innovations include augmented reality technology, rotary bonding, and more.

BMW plans to use what they learn from the pilot plant to bring the iNext to series production at Plant Dingolfing in 2021.

While the automaker has been talking about the iNext being its ‘technology flagship’ for electric cars, BMW plans to release a few other EVs before the iNext.

The BMW iX3, an all-electric SUV, is due to go on sale next year and the BMW i4 should come shortly after.

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