Some luxury automakers are rushing to set cutoff dates for cars equipped with combustion engines. Jaguar will be going purely electric as early as next year, with Volvo to follow in 2030. Other brands such as Audi and Bentley intend to go all in on EVs early in the next decade. While Rolls-Royce and MINI will jump on the zero-emission bandwagon around 2030, the core BMW brand has a different strategy.
Speaking during the Annual General Meeting, BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse said the German premium brand won’t retire conventionally powered cars anytime soon. After all, why should it? The Munich-based marque posted record sales last year. In addition, shipments in the first quarter of this year are higher than they were in Q1 2023.
“The world is a big place – which is why we continue to serve all markets with premium products. With us, everyone can find the right drivetrain to suit their needs. Anything else would be unwise from a business perspective.”
That doesn’t mean it’s putting EVs on the proverbial backburner. On the contrary, the Neue Klasse platform will bring at least six electric models to the market by 2028. There will reportedly be additional Neue Klasse-based electric models, namely the iX5, iX6, and iX7. The three large luxury SUVs will stick to the CLAR architecture but spawn full EV variants.
BMW’s head honcho says the company will be ready to cater to an EV audience should demand for vehicles without combustion engines rise. Purely electric cars accounted for 14.7% of all BMW Group sales in 2023 and are projected to grow to over 50% by the end of the decade. As it stands, EVs from BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce represent 4.1% of total global electric vehicle sales.
Zipse explains BMW doesn’t see gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid cars as being outdated:
“We don’t distinguish between ‘old’ and ‘new’ vehicles – instead, we deliver cutting-edge technology across all areas. And, moreover, we offer the best overall package. This is what we aspire to – and it is perhaps the underlying secret of your company’s success.”
The top brass assures fans of cars with combustion engines that BMW will continue to offer a rich mix of ICE and EV models “even well into the 2030s.”
Source: BMW
