BMW confirms electric car in upcoming 7-series
BMW has now officially confirmed that the next-gen 7 Series will include a fully electric model for the first time but not exclusively as a BEV. However, there is still no official confirmation for the presumed battery-electric version for the 5-series.
BMW’s 7 Series flagship, however, will be available in future with four different types of drive. The Bavarians in their press release specify a diesel or gasoline engine, a plug-in hybrid and, for the first time said BEV model, equipped “with the fifth generation of the electric drive” – i.e. the same technology that BMW wants to use in the upcoming iX3, i4 and iNext. BMW does not give more details.
According to sources close to the company, BMW targets the market launch for 2022. The inclusion of the fully electric 7 Series in the company’s portfolio is to be a central component of the strategy of BMW boss Oliver Zipse, who followed Harald Krüger last summer. Zipse, therefore, intends to transfer the company’s approach of being able to install any drive system in any car in the future using specially developed assemblies to the 5 and 7 Series. This has now been confirmed for the latter series.
In its communication, BMW also announces its intention to invest more than 30 billion euros in research and development for future technologies by 2025. This is an expression of confidence in future business development, emphasized Zipse. “The ability to integrate diverse technologies to form a complete system is vitally important. Those companies capable of developing and combining hardware and software in equal measure will shape the future of the automobile,” added the CEO. Thus, by the end of 2022, BMW wants to raise the efficiency potential to 22BN euros. Among other things, the development process for new vehicle models could be shortened by up to a third.
At the same time, with a view to the transition to its further developed vehicle architectures, BMW intends to phase out up to 50 per cent of the classic drive systems from 2021 onwards, in favour of additional electrified drives. According to the Bavarians, this will become particularly noticeable from 2022 onwards. In principle, the BMW Group wants to have 25 electrified models on the road by 2023 – more than half of them fully electric.
As far as sales are concerned, the Bavarians expect to be able to double sales of electrified vehicles by 2021 compared to 2019. The BMW Group then anticipates a steep growth curve up to 2025: year after year, sales of electrified vehicles are expected to increase by an average of over 30 per cent.
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