More Subtle BMW Kidney Grille Direction Hinted By Design Boss

It’s not easy to speak to anyone senior from BMW’s design team without getting onto the subject of kidney grilles. Perhaps preempting any such questions, it was head of BMW design Domagoj Dukec who first brought up the iconic styling touch when Car Throttle spoke to him just after the launch of the Neue Klasse concept.

That’s a car with a very different take on the kidney grille, not just compared to BMW’s recent efforts, but also anything we’ve previously seen from the company, with grille slats displayed on two large screens that incorporate the headlights. It also seems to signal a move away from the tall, rather ostentatious kidneys the company has courted controversy with.

“These big kidneys, they were part of the story…people, our customers, when they buy a 7-series, they want [to ensure] that everybody understands it’s a 7-series,” Dukec said, adding, “So this strategy doesn’t mean that it has to stay like this forever.”

Referring to the Neue Klasse concept, he said, “It’s a complete reinvention of BMW…people who spend so much money on a car, they want something less ‘offensive’, something which looks, somehow, for everyone. It’s changing and adapting… people don’t want to stand out too much.”

That’s not to say big grilles are for the chop entirely. Dukec refers to the “10 per cent [who say] ‘we like to stand out’”. For those, Dukec explains, “We have M; we have other cars where you can always put this [aggressive kidney grilles] on top.”

What BMW won’t ever do is ditch the kidney grille entirely, Dukec says. He notes that it’s “different” to the Hoffmeister Kink, which BMW doesn’t use on everything, or ‘angel eye’ headlights, which come and go.

“The kidney is really a ‘present’, because so many brands who have no heritage, they try to create a grille, a face,” Dukec explains. He doesn’t believe having to design cars with kidneys in mind is restrictive, as the concept of them is – at the core – very simple.

“[The] kidney grille is not one defined patent where you have somewhere written down how the shape is - it’s just a mirrored opening, so you can have it small like the 850 or the 80s, or slim. So long [as] it’s double, it doesn’t matter where it is.”