BMW has filed a patent utility for grilles that embrace headlights and different lighting components, Auto Categorical reported on Monday, citing info present in patent paperwork.

Paperwork filed with the World Mental Property Group present designs that might incorporate headlights, in addition to sensors for driver-assist options, into BMW’s signature twin-kidney grille, the report stated. Accompanying drawings from the patent utility present the standard headlight and grille shapes blended collectively into contiguous sections.

The paperwork additionally point out “mild conductive tech,” a cloth protecting the grille that may swap from opaque to clear, giving the entrance fascia a clean look when the headlights are off, the report stated. Elements of the grille would then flip clear when the headlights are wanted, permitting mild to shine by way of the fabric.

The drawings present a number of potentialities about how the grille floor might be used for lighting. An “Off” setting reveals no illumination; “On 1” reveals slim daytime working light-like shapes of their conventional place on the corners of the entrance fascia; and “On 2” reveals illuminated components mimicking vertical grille slats.

Lighting components might even be used to mission a digital model of the BMW twin kidney grille on a grille-less entrance fascia, the report theorizes, noting that EVs do not want giant grille openings. BMW plans to launch a household of next-generation EVs dubbed Neue Klasse (German for “new class”) based mostly on a devoted platform starting in 2025, though the automaker expects half of the automobiles it sells globally by 2030 to nonetheless have tailpipes.

Massive grilles, like those on the XM SUV or the current-generation 4 Sequence, have grow to be a function of latest BMW styling. The automaker has additionally launched illuminated grilles on some fashions. So whereas critics of the brand new styling path may cringe, this does appear to be the subsequent logical step. Like all patents, although, there isn’t any assure this design will attain manufacturing.