With the first three months of the year now over, automakers are publishing relevant data about sales performance from January to March. We’ve already learned the BMW core brand suffered a decline in demand of 7.3%, but it’s not all bad. For example, the M division was up by 3.1% while Mottorad saw a significant jump in deliveries of 11.3%.
For more good news, the popularity of electric vehicles was substantially up in Q1 2022. In this interval, BMW and MINI managed to deliver a combined 35,289 EVs. It represents a massive increase of 149.2%, fueled by the success of the i4, iX, and the Cooper SE. By the end of the year, the Group hopes to more than double its sales of zero-emission vehicles compared to 2021.
The i3 hatchback is going away this year, with production scheduled to come to an end in July. However, the i3 Sedan was just unveiled and will be made and sold exclusively in China. It’s based on the long-wheelbase 3 Series and it previews the mid-cycle facelift BMW has prepared for the global 3er. Much like the iX3 also built in China, it comes exclusively in rear-wheel-drive form.
By the end of 2022, the BMW Group will have 15 EVs in production, including pre-series vehicles. Aside from the i3 Sedan, the 7 Series G70 debuting on April 20 will get an i7 counterpart. The next MINI Cooper SE will be made in China while the electric Countryman is going to be assembled in Leipzig. At the same plant in Germany, BMW will make the mechanically related iX1.
We also know the i5 due to go on sale in 2023 will enter pre-production before the end of this year. Combined, BMW says its electric offerings will cover approximately 90% of the segments in which the automaker is active. The arrival of the Neue Klasse architecture in 2025 will accelerate the Group’s electric push. Come 2030, Rolls-Royce will go EV-only while MINI is going to do the same early that next decade.
Source: BMW
