There’s a growing chorus of automotive experts talking about the electric car market crashing. And there’s real data that points to not just a price war amongst automakers but a hint of consumer pushback. But does this affect BMW and is its transition to electric going globally? We recently heard from several BMW executives at the X2 launch on this very topic.
In terms of how it’s going there’s a lot of positive signs. For one JD Power just named BMW as the best BEV brand in the US. That’s a shocking data point given the competitive set. And if you look globally sales appear to be similarly positive.
BMW sold 375,716 fully-electric cars (2022: 215.752 units / +74,1%) to customers hitting the predicted 15% of total sales. And remember this is just three models in the range. If you include plugin hybrids, that figure skyrocket to 565,875 EVs (2022:433,792 units / +30.5%) and 22% of all cars sold.
But the BMW representatives we spoke with also warned that they don’t expect the EV switch to be a binary one. They believe the transition will happen over time and will have different progressions depending on the market and country. We pressed this point by asking if the F66 internal combustion MINI for example was a reaction to the slow EV growth in the US. The response was enlightening. Yes the US market’s buying tendencies matter but so does Poland and other countries where we see EV growth on a different curve than Germany and elsewhere.
Of course BMW is happy to let the growth be driven by customer demand thanks to its “power of choice” platform strategy underpinning both EVs and ICE cars. Criticized when announced as not bold enough, the move now looks like the right one. 15% of BMW sales are full electric cars but only one of them (the iX) is actually based on an EV platform.
Granted that will come to an end eventually. The Nueue Klasse platform arriving in 2025, will signal BMW’s full embrace of an electric platform for all future models. Even still the transition will be slow and BMW believes they’re in a good position to follow buying patterns both globally and within each market.
Charging infrastructure and favorable legislation will help tremendously and they seem to be planning for both in the years ahead. In the US BMW has made several moves to align with other automakers and most recently Shell in growing the infrastructure exponentially.
This will clear the path for a full EV transition for the brand by the early to mid 2030s. Further they are fully planning on six EVs being built entirely in the US by 2030.
All of this doesn’t mean there won’t be some slow sale of EVs over the years and even some deals to be had. Recent lease pricing on the i4 shows that. But BMW feels they’re in a good position compared to rivals as the road to electrification includes some curves.
