BMW's Korean ‘fans’ will love its trailblazing try, says chief deisgner

[INTERVIEW]

MUNICH — No one has reinvented BMW’s iconic kidney grille more audaciously than Adrian van Hooydonk, the chief designer of BMW Group, in its history — bending tradition with every bold, unexpected transformation: stretching it, shrinking it, even illuminating it.

The newly unveiled iX3’s radical front — featuring a dramatically reduced kidney grille — marks van Hooydonk’s latest and boldest design statement, where he believes it will resonate particularly well with Korea’s tech-savvy consumers, or “fans,” in his own words.

“In Korea, we don't have customers; we have fans, and we know that modern Korean customers certainly want to bring their digital life into the car,” said van Hooydonk during an interview on the sidelines of IAA Mobility 2025 on Monday in Munich.

“Korean customers also expect to be able to configure the cars in their own personal way. With our new panoramic display design, customers can select apps that they want in there so they can really bring your personal private digital life into the car.”

Van Hooydonk now oversees the design direction for all brands under the BMW Group umbrella — from the premium BMW marque to sub-brands like MINI, Rolls-Royce and even its motorcycle lineup, Motorrad. While each brand serves a distinct purpose and identity, they are unified by his single design philosophy: bold and forward-looking innovation.

The iX3 features the world’s first panoramic vision display, a groundbreaking feature that BMW says will serve as the starting point for the brand’s next generation of design. Set to hit the market in early 2026, the iX3 is expected to launch in Asian markets — including Korea — by mid-2026.

“Technology is changing very fast and that keeps changing the competition, so we must keep changing and typically in design, we should also take a bigger step,” he said.

“Now is the time to do. We wanted to do an extremely new design that would carry us well into the next decade and that could withstand everything that any new competitor or starter was going to bring to the table.”

Despite the avant-garde aesthetics, the head designer says he is confident that BMW customers will still recognize the brand’s signature driving dynamics — and see that the core elements of BMW’s design language remain fully embedded in this mode.

“Neue Klasse changed quite a lot, but there are certain things that I think our customers will always recognize: the sporty proportion, the precision in the lines and the fact that the whole car is designed around the driving experience — this I think people will love,” van Hooydonk said.

“The car looks dynamic, like it’s moving even when it’s standing.”

Since joining BMW in 2004, van Hooydonk has spent more than two decades with the company — an uncommonly long tenure in an industry where designers typically move between brands to broaden their portfolios and careers.

When asked why, he said he stays with BMW Group because he doesn’t want to make "boring products."

“All the products are super exciting to design, and it's always been a pleasure that the top management team has a lot of respect for design, so they give us a lot of freedom,” van Hooydonk said. “I couldn't think of a better place to work.”

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]