BMW reveals plans to produce a long-range electric SUV

With its sleek design and oodles of celebrity fans, Tesla may currently be the coolest electric car brand around. But that may soon change. BMW recently announced that it plans to produce its own electric vehicle that will have a longer driving range than Tesla’s cars, and will look just as fabulously futuristic.

According to Mashable, the luxury car company plans to release a prototype of its iNext all-electric vehicle sometime in 2018, and will begin producing the SUV to sell in 2021. It’s thought that the iNext will have a similar size and style to the BMW x5, the car company’s current gas-powered SUV.

Although this is hardly BMW’s first foray into producing electric vehicles, what makes the iNext especially appealing to prospective buyers is that its batteries will reportedly boast a 435-mile range, the longest driving range of any all-electric vehicle on the U.S. market.

That means one could drive the electric BMW iNext from Los Angeles, California to Phoenix, Arizona (373 miles) or from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Boston, Massachusetts (348 miles) on a single battery charge and still have miles to spare!

In comparison, Tesla’s Model S and Model 3 cars currently top out at around 335 miles and 310 miles, respectively, while many other electric vehicles on the market—like the Ford Focus Electric or 2017 FIAT 500e—only have a 70–85-mile range, which makes long distance drives more inconvenient and requires them to be meticulously planned out.

Although Tesla is believed to be working on their own electric SUV, with a larger battery that would compete with the iNext, if Elon Musk’s car company continues to suffer from long production delays, that might create space for another automaker to swoop in with a new and more accessible “it” car that everyone wants.

If that becomes the case, we bet a lot of people will be putting BMW’s iNext electric vehicle on their wish lists for 2021.