BMW has yet to confirm an “X9,” but with customers and dealers crying out for a larger SUV from the brand, it would be a shock if one wasn’t deep into development. Autonotion recently caught up with Stefan Monro, lead designer at BMW’s California-based Designworks in an attempt to pry out a bit of info on what a larger BMW SUV would look like.
There is a bit of a disclaimer here. While Designworks did design the concept for the original X5 in the early 2000s, and it does have an influence on the German brand’s design directions, it does not directly work on production vehicles like the X5. So an internal BMW design team will actually be calling the shots there.
Still, just as it pops out hotels for restaurants, hotels, and even trains. Designworks does still pop together plenty of BMW concepts. So it wouldn’t be shocking if the Lead Designer of the California Designworks did have some indirect influence on where the X5 was going. Even if he wouldn’t confirm that.
While he isn’t directly working on the “X9,” Monro did suggest that despite scaling up any larger SUV would still be distinctly BMW. He said:
“I think as a designer, DNA should always be scalable. So it shouldn’t matter matter if you’re designing a product like Starlux (an airline BMW Designworks is producing work for). It doesn’t matter if you;re going from economy class to business class, you know you
Re in the same aircraft, it’s all part of the same brand.
The sporty aspects of BMW are married to the DNA. That’s not to say anything larger than the X5 or X7 can’t be sporty.”
The aggressive, sporty, exterior aspects that you see on everything from the 3-Series to the X7 aren’t only on the exterior. According to Monro, the inside should be distinctly BMW too. While this sometimes involves grappling with engineering demands, the lead designer argues that some constraints tend to result in better design work.
“As a designer, the challenge is always to keep the theme throughout the car. So you start with the theme sketches selected and try to maintain that when you get all of the constraints of physical packaging, engineering, safety, airbags. We have so many ADAS systems to include. Everything is absolutely necessary, but it’s part of the role of a designer to negotiate that.
You know some things can’t be changed, and you have to develop around them. But I know from experience that vehicles develop far better when these two things marry together. Sometimes a pure design vision, or pure engineering vision, is quite polarizing. When they marry together that’s when you get a vehicle that people really want to buy.”
The increased space on an X9 would not be wasted
Obviously, a larger vehicle means more interior space. Empty space could be seen as a bit of a waste, so designers like Monro will try to make use of it. As the scale increases over the X7, the veteran designer is confident that BMW will make solid use of the extra room. He said:
“You’ve got this much space available to you, how can you make that space, that environment, more of an experience. People are changing the way they use these spaces. Traditionally, you were just meant to sit there and drive. We’re always looking for areas to create or promote existing BMW experiences.”
It’s like when you move to a bigger house, you will always fill the space somehow. But if you go to a smaller space, you’ll be fine with that space. Yes there is more space, which allows more freedom but it raises the expectations of what that space is going to be used for. The expectation of the features in that car, I think, grows with the available space.
You definitely don’t want dead space as well. Even if it’s bigger every bit of that vehicle needs to have purpose.”
However, “purpose” can still involve a bit of blank canvas. Just because there isn’t a bit of trim, or a USB-C port jammed in there it doesn’t mean every square inch of the vehicle hasn’t been thoroughly thought about. Monro outlined how some empty space is actually a key feature, and it actually takes a lot of effort to not fill it in.
“You’ve always got to think about what a customer wants and part of that customer is always going to be talking about luggage space. So as a designer, it’s always tempting to say ‘lets use that space for something else.’
But in practical terms, when you’re traveling in an X7 or a bigger vehicle, you’re going to be traveling with family or friends. You’re going to carry a lot of luggage. So sometimes you need the empty space to be able to make use of it.”
It’s a pretty exciting time for BMW. While the X9 has not been officially confirmed, the company does have over 20 vehicles in the works at the moment including a new 7-series, the hotly anticipated iX3 is arriving this summer, and a redesigned “Neue Klasse” i3 should be along towards the end of the year. Beyond that, even the company’s non-electric vehicles are getting a bit of a Neue Klasse twist. So whether an X9 is coming any time soon or not, it’s still worth keeping a close eye on the Munich-based manufacturer in 2026.
