BMW appears to be working on an electric vehicle (EV) with a ladder frame, but what type of car this could be is not entirely clear.
Last week AutoBuzz found a BMW patent for a ladder frame at the German Patent and Trademark Office.
The design consists of three parts, each made by casting. The center section is designed to carry the car’s battery pack, while the front and rear sections house the suspension and electric motors. A separate superstructure is mounted on top of this chassis.
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There is no mention of a gasoline engine or powertrain support, but the filing focuses solely on EV applications. Unfortunately, the filing doesn’t give any indication as to what type of car this ladder frame is intended for, with BMW claiming it can be used for a “sedan, SUV, estate, compact, hatchback, convertible”.
Since the 1960s, the vast majority of BMW’s production cars have used monocoque construction. Notable exceptions include the M1 supercar, which had a space frame, and the i3 hatchback and i8 coupe with body-on-frame designs.
It’s possible the ladder frame could be used for an off-roader that’s more capable than the current X5.
A report from Automotive News In August last year, BMW claimed that BMW is working on an SUV, codenamed ‘G74’, to take on the likes of the Land Rover Defender, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Lexus LX. The latter two models have a traditional ladder frame setup, while the Defender has a hybrid design.
The trade magazine’s sources say that, if approved, the G74 will go into production at the company’s South Carolina plant in the second half of 2029.
However, according to the report, the G74 is based on the same CLAR platform as the X5. CLAR supports most of the company’s vehicles from the 3 Series upwards and supports internal combustion, plug-in hybrid and pure electric powertrains.
It should also be noted that companies patent many ideas that never make it into production, so the existence of a patent does not prove that the G74 project has been greenlit. Since it usually takes a few years for patents to be approved, larger companies often patent many of the ideas they are working on, just in case.
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