{"id":7570,"date":"2026-04-19T17:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/?p=7570"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:18:14","slug":"what-would-a-bmw-x9-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/what-would-a-bmw-x9-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would a BMW X9 Look Like? We Asked the Lead Designer at BMW Designworks in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

BMW has yet to confirm an \u201cX9,\u201d but with customers and dealers crying out for a larger SUV from the brand, it would be a shock if one wasn\u2019t deep into development. Autonotion<\/em><\/strong> recently caught up with Stefan Monro, lead designer at BMW\u2019s California-based Designworks in an attempt to pry out a bit of info on what a larger BMW<\/strong><\/a> SUV would look like.<\/p>\n

There is a bit of a disclaimer here. While Designworks<\/strong> did design the concept for the original X5 in the early 2000s, and it does have an influence on the German brand\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019t confirm that.<\/p>\n

While he isn\u2019t directly working on the \u201cX9,\u201d Monro did suggest that despite scaling up any larger SUV would still be distinctly BMW. He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a designer, DNA should always be scalable. So it shouldn\u2019t matter matter if you\u2019re designing a product like Starlux (an airline BMW Designworks is producing work for). It doesn\u2019t matter if you;re going from economy class to business class, you know you
\nRe in the same aircraft, it\u2019s all part of the same brand.<\/p>\n

The sporty aspects of BMW are married to the DNA. That\u2019s not to say anything larger than the X5 or X7 can\u2019t be sporty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aggressive, sporty, exterior aspects that you see on everything from the 3-Series to the X7 aren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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\u2019s part of the role of a designer to negotiate that.<\/p>\n

You know some things can\u2019t 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\u2019s when you get a vehicle that people really want to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The increased space on an X9 would not be wasted<\/h2>\n
\"The
Credit: Dave McQuilling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve 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\u2019re always looking for areas to create or promote existing BMW experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like when you move to a bigger house, you will always fill the space somehow. But if you go to a smaller space, you\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

You definitely don\u2019t want dead space as well. Even if it\u2019s bigger every bit of that vehicle needs to have purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, \u201cpurpose\u201d can still involve a bit of blank canvas. Just because there isn\u2019t a bit of trim, or a USB-C port jammed in there it doesn\u2019t mean every square inch of the vehicle hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve 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\u2019s always tempting to say \u2018lets use that space for something else.\u2019<\/p>\n

But in practical terms, when you\u2019re traveling in an X7 or a bigger vehicle, you\u2019re going to be traveling with family or friends. You\u2019re going to carry a lot of luggage. So sometimes you need the empty space to be able to make use of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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<\/a>, the hotly anticipated iX3 is arriving this summer, and a redesigned \u201cNeue Klasse\u201d i3<\/a> should be along towards the end of the year. Beyond that, even the company\u2019s non-electric vehicles are getting a bit of a Neue Klasse twist<\/a>. So whether an X9 is coming any time soon or not, it\u2019s still worth keeping a close eye on the Munich-based manufacturer in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BMW has yet to confirm an \u201cX9,\u201d but with customers and dealers crying out for a larger SUV from the … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-7570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-performance-and-luxury","tag-bmw","resize-featured-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7575,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions\/7575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.autonocion.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}