BMW still aims to reach around 50% of global electric vehicle sales by the end of the decade, in line with its plan The automaker launches in 2021but is not yet ready to declare an end date for internal combustion.
“By 2030, fully electric vehicles will account for about half of our deliveries,” Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse said Wednesday in a speech to shareholders. But the exact pace of the acceleration will be determined by market trends, Zipse added.
BMW i5 2024 Tour
“We remain committed to this goal and are pushing for an increase consistent with demand,” Zipse said. “We will stay flexible—even into the 2030s.”
Zipse also emphasized that hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles remain an important part of BMW’s plans, noting that the automaker expects a plug-in hybrid version of the mid-size 5-Series will account for about 20% of sales of that model in Europe. The 5-Series is also available with a gasoline engine and an all-electric i5.
The electrification target also applies to BMW-owned Mini and Rolls-Royce. The The first Rolls-Royce EV— the Specter coupe — arrived last year and accounted for 38% of Rolls deliveries in the first quarter of this year, Zipse said. He added that BMW will have 15 fully electric models globally across all its brands.
Rolls-Royce Specter 2024
BMW will bring its next-generation electric vehicles closer to the mass market with the Neue Klasse models, scheduled to be produced for the US in Mexico. The first of these models is an SUV previewed by a recent concept—is expected to begin production for the European market next year in Hungary. Production will then be added in Germany and finally in Mexico in 2027.
Neue Klasse marks another turning point for BMW. After relatively slow i3 hatchback sales, BMW revised electrification plan in 2019, with a focus on all-electric variants or equivalent versions of the core internal combustion models.
