The Icon is an all-glass yacht with an Oscar-winning soundtrack
- The Icon is a yacht built by BMW and Tyde
- The yacht is largely made from glass
- The interior looks like a five-star hotel
Published on Jul 18, 2024 at 7:53 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Jul 25, 2024 at 11:51 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
The Icon – BMW’s first yacht – is one of those vehicles that pop out of nowhere.
One day, BMW is making cars with massive grilles, and the next, they are making a boat in partnership with a company called Tyde.
But this is no ordinary boat.
The Icon is special for a long list of reasons, starting with the glass structure.
The yacht is currently available from SBX Cars, with zero nautical miles under her tires – so to speak.
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The Icon – or THE ICON in all caps, which is how BMW stylized the name – is unlike anything else we have seen before.
It’s a foiling boat, characterized by a flat trimaran-style hull with a ‘prism-like’ layout and a central support for the superstructure.
The Icon features a wide, flat stern with a maximum beam of 4.5 meters (14ft 9in) that tapers towards a knife-like reverse-angled bow.
The LED lights that light the yacht up at night are the cherry on top of the cake.
An Oscar-winning soundtrack
A few years ago, BMW teamed up with Hans Zimmer, an Oscar-winning Hollywood composer, to create a custom soundtrack for its electric cars.
While they were at it, BMW and Tyde asked Zimmer to create a soundtrack for the propulsion system of The Icon.
It’s a neat trick, chiefly because it’s something no one else had thought of, and it makes the experience even more unique.
The Icon interior is halfway between a supercar and a hotel
For the interior, The Icon combines elements of a supercar with design cues you’d expect from a five-star hotel or a luxury airport lounge.
It follows the same color theme as the exterior, with ocean blue upholstery and gold-tone accents.
In the cabin, you’ll find six 360-degree rotating armchairs with individual tablets within arm’s reach, as well as plush sofas and soft suede carpeting.
In the middle of the deck, the command station has iDrive-style controls and voice control, and you also get a 32-inch ‘infotainment’ touchscreen display with 6k resolution.
Supercar-like performance figures
The Icon is powered by two 134-hp (100-kW) electric motors and six batteries.
The yacht produces 240kWh in total, giving it a top speed of 30 knots – equivalent to around 55km/h on land.
More importantly, this means The Icon is faster than most watercraft this side of a speedboat.
In terms of range, The Icon can cover 50 nautical miles (100 kilometers / 62 miles) on a charge.
The auction is live now on SBX Cars, and it ends on July 31st.