Bavaria!
The Silicon Valley of Germany.
Home of Mensch ärgere dich nicht, Pumuckl,
the modern soccer shoe
and many other inventions literally
no one in the real Silicon Valley has ever heard of.
The pulsating heart of the German high-tech industry
and the birthplace of the upcoming superstar
of German engineering – the BMW iNEXT.
The one car that will bring comfort and power
to the future of e-mobility like
no car has ever done before.
People, this is nonsense.
That's the Vision car from 2018.
We want to see the real iNEXT.
Where is it?
So here we are.
BMW wants us to make a documentary
about the latest project, the iNEXT.
A visionary supercar that will bring comfort
and power to the future of e-mobility
like no car has ever done before.
But where is it?
We are filmmakers –
independent, critical, and, let’s be honest, very well-paid.
And also, we just got lost in this gigantic building.
And we can't get in back there?
Is there a freight elevator?
To go up to the boss.
Here, follow him.
Oh great.
You know, in Germany cars have a kind of religious status.
Speed limits are passionately debated
like nothing else in the world.
People over here are so emotional and enthusiastic
when it comes to cars.
But with electric mobility
things got a little bit out of hand.
Tesla is now worth more than BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen combined,
despite BMW alone having sold six times more cars
than Tesla in the year 2019.
And they still have their experience,
their know-how, and, of course,
their fabulous engineers.
Awesome people like project manager Johann Kistler,
the godfather of the iNEXT.
Which one is the iNEXT?
This one, the grey one.
The grey one!
Today we caught a grey one.
Here it comes.
We have two other cars ahead of it,
and then we get to the "Hochvoltspeichermontage".
It's about to really get going with the assembly.
Hochvoltspeichermontage …
a German word only German engineers could come up with.
It tells us something about the pure
and honest romantic relationship
between engineers and machines.
True love.
Forty years ago, it didn't exist.
And my first car, the 323i, had 143 HP.
And of course back then 143 HP was...
It was a real speed demon.
It was a beauti--
Let's just say the ladies liked it.
Thank you, Johann.
Very impressive.
Speaking of which
how about now you impress us with powerful batteries
in an electric car?
Like, say, the iNEXT.
This is now approximately equal to a sixty-liter tank.
Right, Andreas?
Yeah, it's roughly about that, right.
Absolutely suitable for long distances,
the energy we're making available to the customers.
You can feel that everybody at BMW
is totally excited about the mysterious iNEXT.
But it’s hard to tell exactly why.
Let us leave Bavaria for a moment
and have a look at the rest of the world.
Yes, dear Bavarians, there is a rest of the world.
For sure, trust me.
When it comes to fossil fuels, we all have to learn quickly.
How do you make up for all that power
from combustion engines in an electric vehicle?
The power needed for batteries in a car
is the equivalent of 60,000 gallons of water
crashing down the Niagara Falls,
or 319 hours of sun in the desert,
or the tensile force of a camel
hanging from a hot air balloon,
or crazy aliens speeding in golf carts
over the surface of Mars.
OH NO.
Doesn’t drive anymore.
S**T. The battery’s dead.
These damn electric golfcarts!
WORTHLESS TOY CARS!
GIVE IT A PUSH!
PUSH IT YOURSELF!
The next charging station is on Earth.
That's 70 million kilometers away, you idiot!
Ouch!
Mars?
Mars.
Mars is mobilizing.
Mars of all places.
For my first car, in 1979,
the second exterior mirror was still a custom feature.
And nowadays my car has Internet.
So what is the car
people will want in the future?
And by now I've recognized
that we have an answer.
And the iNEXT is for us the awakening,
for me it's the awakening.
It will be my last project,
but I wanted to make sure I did it,
and for me it's about
finishing the Futurist.
“The futurist”.
Come on, Johann, it is just a car!
Do we not all want to create something for eternity?
Something our great-great-grandchildren
will still be talking about?
Streets and town squares
were named after us
for making the whole world a better place.
Oh please, not all that bullshit again!
Let us stay with Johann and see that awesome new car, ok?
And we do want to earn some new customers.
And so the concept is,
in our opinion, really...
let's say, it's a very good concept.
Yeah, thank you.
And that's how we're attacking it.
Yeah, yeah.
But can we actually … can we now just film it?
Can we see it?
The car is of course not camouflaged yet,
and so I ask you please not to film it.
Okay …
Because now it's...
Oh come on, Johann!
Are you kidding me?!
Johann?
Johann?!