BMW’s Secret “Bigfoot” Prototype Formed the i3’s Radical Design

BMW’s most unconventional concepts seldom seem out of skinny air. They usually start as even stranger experiments hidden deep throughout the model’s design archives. Lengthy earlier than the i3 turned BMW’s quirky, eco-forward assertion piece, the corporate was already wrestling with daring questions surrounding city mobility and renewable supplies. One early design research, dubbed “Bigfoot,” pushed these concepts additional than most understand. And whereas the world by no means noticed this prototype on the highway, it quietly set the stage for certainly one of BMW’s most original manufacturing vehicles.

The BMW i3 and an Unlikely Hyperlink to “Bigfoot”

Whereas “Bigfoot” in all probability isn’t the very first thing you consider while you lay eyes on the tiny electrical BMW i3 (the previous one, thoughts you), an idea dubbed precisely that lent a lot of its design to the intrepid little metropolis automobile. Venture Bigfoot — which we don’t have any photos of (but?) — featured a single door, which later turned a rear-hinged door within the i3. Just like the i3, it was a bubble formed automobile that relied on renewable supplies like wooden. Outsized wheels and a small footprint (regardless of its deceptive identify) — in any case, Bigfoot was designed as a megacity car, the same area of interest the i3 occupied — additional attracts comparability to the i3 we all know and love.

Bigfoot’s identify illustrates one of many underlying ideas behind why it exists within the first place. A Designworks spokesperson discusses how dimension and design are intertwined. “Scale for us can be an angle. It doesn’t essentially have to be concerning the precise dimension.” He goes on to say that Bigfoot was a collaboration with Munich’s engineering staff. Whereas the design train was, in idea, a world collaboration, Bigfoot seems the best way it does partly due to Designworks’ California locale. A lot of Bigfoot’s design inspiration got here from the studio’s structure and the issues round it. Drawing inspiration from California, the design staff apparently requested themselves “how will you create a dwelling area on wheels?” The spokesperson stated influences included tiny homes, which had been standard in California on the time. The outcomes included unorthodox supplies like corrugated metal and wooden panels. And, an inside that mimicked what the manufacturing i3 ended up with.

Bigfoot’s Affect on the i3 is a Design Reminder

The BMW i3, even right now, is a mode assertion. And for Designworks, Bigfoot’s relationship to the little electrical metropolis automobile is a reminder. Whereas Bigfoot by no means went into manufacturing strictly as-is, that’s nearly irrelevant. “The i3 in all probability wouldn’t have turn into such an progressive, radical design with out this enter,” the identical Designworks spokesperson stated. “We didn’t translate it actually, nevertheless it’s supplying you with an concept of how far we go and push and search for new concepts.” What higher automobile showcases that precept than the i3? In any case, even years after manufacturing has ended, the automobile nonetheless attracts followers and detractors.