BMW is accelerating electrification plans

BMW plans to offer 25 electrified models by 2023 – two years earlier than previously announced. Group CEO Harald Krüger also announced an ambitious growth target for electrified models.

According to local media reports, Krüger updated BMW’s electrification targets, initially announced at the IAA 2017. Now they will be offering 25 electrified models by 2023. At the same time, Krüger is said to have called for sales of electrified car models to increase by at least 30 per cent per year.

There is no official confirmation for the report so far, as BMW declined to comment on the news first broken by the German FAZ paper.

With the i3, the Munich-based company has the second best-selling electric car in their native Germany (after the Renault Zoe), but the model is now already six years old. From 2016 to 2018 BMW sold 92,123 i3s worldwide – 12,064 of them in Germany. Since the premiere of the i3 in 2013, BMW has not launched another fully electric car on the market, instead opting for plug-in hybrids.

In the meantime, the future range of electric cars has taken on a more concrete form with the Mini, the i4, the iX3 and the series version of the iNEXT. Even with a few offshoots of the models mentioned above – an iX4 based on the iX3 could also be created – BMW is unlikely to reach the 12 targeted all-electric car models. Plus, the carmaker effectively accelerated the current timetable by two years.

At the IAA 2017, Krüger announced that all new electric vehicles would be marketed under the BMWi subsidiary brand.

faz.net (German)

5 Comments

about „BMW is accelerating electrification plans“
gery katona
25.06.2019 um 01:20
It seems the BMW EV strategy is not very focused, mostly electrifying ICE platforms which means they won't be very competitive with the pure EV models. Take the I4 which is just an electrified 3/4 series and will compete directly with a Model 3 Tesla which sells in the hundreds of thousands. The BMW will be a niche product at best.
William Tahil
25.06.2019 um 19:57
A clearly coordinated campaign against Harald Kruger and his intelligent management is underway. Tesla - the $35,000 vaporware car that never materialised and sales nowhere near the supposed 400,000 reservations that likewise have evaporated if they ever existed - which raises serious questions of potential fraud against Mr "Musk". Meanwhile we see VW Battery supply in trouble (27.05.19) with Samsung possibly cutting supply from 20 to only 5 GWh. We see Audi revises down etron production targets "by more than 10,000 units to 45,242 units, due to supply issues (batteries). Also, production of Audi’s second electric model, the e-tron Sportback, is to be postponed until 2020" (23.04.19) but even so Audi e-tron sales have already overtaken the Tesla Model X and S in Europe and USA combined - which are Tesla's highest margin cars. Musk announced sales of 500,000 this year in an unapproved Tweet whereas so far they are on less than 90k per quarter. The Dutch electric car rental company EC Rent had to shut down in December 2018 due to lack of spare parts supply from Tesla and a Chinese ride hailing company took out billboards in Times Square saying 20% of their new Tesla cars were delivered with mechanical problems. Average service time: 45 days. Do Toyota have a pure EV? No. Jim Lentz their USA President said recently there is a limited business case for EVs with gas at $2.50 a gallon while paying a premium, limited range and long recharging times. Tesla is a tiny niche company – not a mass manufacturer. The decisions that Toyota and BMW have to take are completely different. And for all their EV noise, to distract from their diesel sins, VW’s raw materials requirements for lithium and cobalt will be totally unrealistic – current global lithium carbonate production is 200k tonnes p.a. and China want 800 ktonnes alone by 2025!! And China control more and more of the lithium supply chain. PHEVs make far more sense – a small 8 kWh battery not 80 kWh, limited battery cost, still get 30 – 50 km electric range which covers 80% of daily driving needs but no range anxiety either or chance of getting stranded – a flexible car that covers all your needs with electric for short local use and quick to recharge and petrol for the long trips and not loaded down with batteries that weigh more than armour plating. Plus 10 cars get excellent fuel economy instead of only 1 EV not using petrol at all creating much much higher overall reduction in petrol consumption. PHEVs are the intelligent electric strategy and I hope the Germans still pride themselves on being intelligent.
gerd
13.07.2019 um 09:56
ramping up such a new industry will always have some issues in supply and demand on all levels. How long did it take to ramp up ICE cars to todays standard.fact is 1liter of fuel is about 10kWh. a fat, old, far from perfect tesla model S needs 20 kWh per 100 km. .. an ICE consumes tons of fuel during lifetime, so some 100 kg of batteries that will be recycled instead of beeng burned. ...so what is intelligent?
Tim H
26.06.2019 um 09:12
@William Tahil. You are right that there is a reversal of fortunes for pure EVs, and your intimation that this is primarily due to refuelling problems is also right. But I disagree that PHEVs are the solution, since they are routinely used as ICE vehicles and make little significant impact on fleet carbon.A better solution is the Range Extender - either petrol (as the i3) or a fuel cell (perhaps from Ceres power). This provides 90% of driving in EV as a routine solution. But the 10% of long range driving is covered by a slightly performance-compromised option.
ECo
11.07.2019 um 10:20
The i3 is heavily criticized in reviews for its range. And to be honest the range on my 2018 i3s is disappointing.But I love that car and I don't understand why they haven't picked up that Lion Light battery as an option. With a 100kWh battery option they would outclass the competition and be a winner in BEV. Instead the competition is jumping all over them with new cars for less money with longer range.

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