BMW adopts new nomenclature strategy, drops 'i' from its ICE cars

BMW has adopted a new nomenclature strategy, under which, the German luxury car giant is removing the letter ‘i’ at the end of its model names, claims a report by BMWBlog. The automaker has traditionally used the letter ‘i’ at the end of its model names for quite a long time. The names such as 325i, 540i etc. were initially used to differentiate the fuel-injected cars from their carbureted counterparts in BMW's product portfolio, which had a three-digit name denoting the series of the car and the engine size.

However, the carmaker dropped the carburettors long ago and also has the pure electric sub-brand badged as ‘i’. Now in an attempt to differentiate fossil fuel cars from electric vehicles, the car giant has reportedly started ditching the ‘i’ letter from the end of its internal combustion engine-powered models' names.

The report has quoted Bernd Köber, Senior Vice President of BMW Brand and Product Management, Connected Company saying that the car manufacturer now wants the ‘i’ to signify only electric cars. As part of this nomenclature strategy, BMW is reportedly set to add an M50 model for the next-generation X3 SUV whereas the current model is christened as M40i.

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The reason behind this strategy is to clear the confusion among the consumers. BMW sells an i5 that comes as a fully electric 5-Series model, while there is an internal combustion engine-powered model called 540i. Some customers get confused with this naming strategy. The auto giant believes that with this new naming strategy, it will be able to streamline the product portfolio, clearly defining which are pure electric cars and which are ICE models.

It is not clear when BMW will drop the ‘i’ letter from all of its ICE vehicles. However, it would be a strange sight to see something like 325 at the back of a 3 Series, as the ‘i’ has become such a staple for the brand.