BMW Could Build An Electric Sports Car With Neue Klasse DNA To Take On The Porsche Cayman EV

The era of the electric sports car may soon be upon us in a big-ish way. Porsche has been hard at work testing electric versions of its Boxster and Cayman, and now BMW is saying it hasn't ruled out investing in an EV sports car of its very own. It makes sense as the Z4 is — once again — going the way of the dodo bird in the next year, and what is BMW without a dedicated sports car?

This hypothetical electric sports car would be part of BMW's Neue Klasse range of vehicles that the company began rolling out with the iX3 electric crossover that debuted at the International Mobility Show in Germany, according to Australia's Drive. Joachim Post, a BMW board member for development, told members of the Australian media that it was "feasible" for Neue Klasse underpinnings to support a sports car. If you speak German executive like I do, you know that's about as enthusiastic as it gets.

Here's what else Post told the outlet:

"The philosophy of BMW also has been in the past to... we say baukasten, and that means that we have communal parts for different types of cars and different segments," said Post.

Basically, what Post is saying is that BMW can integrate the same parts — like battery cells and electronic control units — into different packages. That means they can take their components and fit them into all different shapes and sizes. Theoretically, the stuff that fits inside a crossover like the iX3 would also fit inside a hypothetical iZ4.

"That's why we can be so fast to [spread] this new technology [across the line-up] in two years, in 40 derivatives – that gives you the possibility to make scaling combinations to make that feasible to run, from a business case [perspective].

"We will see what's coming up for future."

Back in March, we told you that BMW was planning to release 40 new vehicles on its Neue Klasse platform in just the next three years. That's a lot of cars, so it really wouldn't be shocking to me if the Bavarians decided to try their hands at an electric sports car.

After all, they've got some practice. The i8, while not fully electric, was a radically designed plug-in hybrid sports car for the time. BMW is also working on an electric version of the M3, so it knows how to do electric speed, and I'm sure the fact that Porsche is going ahead with its own electric versions of the Cayman and Boxster is encouraging some friendly competition.