BMW North America has joined forces with Scenic America, a national non-profit organization, to plant 25 trees for each test drive taken with an electric vehicle at participating dealerships. The campaign runs from April 18 until May 1. The announcement about the “Trees for Test Drives” initiative comes several days ahead of Earth Day, which is celebrated each year on April 22. The trees will be planted in areas across North America that have been devastated by wildfires.
In related news, BMW mentions sales of purely electric vehicles accounted for eight percent of total deliveries in the United States during the first three months of the year, reaching 6,588 units. Only the i4, i7, and iX are available locally as the company has decided against bringing the iX1 and iX3 crossovers to the US. In addition, the i3 Sedan is only sold in China. Later this year, the i5 (teased below) will join the lineup as an electric equivalent of the next-generation 5 Series Sedan.
Factoring in sales of plug-in hybrid models such as the 330e, 530e, and the X5 xDrive45e (replaced for 2024 by the xDrive50e), BMW says electrified vehicles accounted for almost 17% of US sales in Q1 2023. The recently launched XM is also a plug-in hybrid vehicle, but given its steep starting price of $159,000, it’s unlikely to be a strong seller.
By the end of the decade, the company projects it’ll be able to sell at least one million purely electric vehicles. To get there, at least six SUVs on the Neue Klasse platform will go into production by 2030 at the Spartanburg plant in South Carolina. In the meantime, EV sales are projected to triple in 2023 compared to the year before, helped by the upcoming i5. It remains to be seen whether the already announced i5 Touring launching in 2024 will be available in the US.
Source: BMW
