BMW posted double-digit growth for electric vehicles in 2024 when global shipments rose 11.6% to 368,523 EVs. The German luxury brand is off to a strong start to the year in Europe, delivering 13,715 EVs in January. Fueling the demand was the iX1, which enjoyed a 64% boost to 3,883 units, according to numbers published by Dataforce and cited by Automotive News Europe.
The i4 was not far behind. The electric version of the 4 Series Gran Coupe rose by 5.4% to 3,717 vehicles. The Life Cycle Impulse introduced last year must have encouraged more buyers to opt for the electric 4er. Its bigger brother, the i5, saw its sales nearly double compared to January 2024. However, it sounds better than it actually is. European availability of the electric 5 Series was not at its full potential a year ago, so a comparison is unfair.
In January 2025, BMW delivered 2,122 examples of i5 electric sedans and wagons to customers from Europe, an increase of 96.1% compared to the same month last year. Nearly 4,000 EVs were other models sold by the Bavarian brand, varying from the iX2 to the i7. With almost 14,000 electric cars sold in the first month of the year, BMW comfortably outsold Tesla, which plummeted by 46% to 10,511 vehicles.
But how did BMW perform overall? Dataforce reports 59,193 cars with the famous roundel were sold in Europe last month. It’s a minor drop of 1,094 units, but the luxury brand has a long year ahead to recuperate. MINI suffered a similar fall in January 2025, with volume declining by about 1,000 cars to 10,418 units. As for Rolls-Royce, it shipped 86 vehicles, minus one compared to the same month of last year.
BMW’s electric lineup will be without the iX3 for a few months. The old CLAR-based model goes out of production in the second quarter. Its Neue Klasse-based successor won’t hit the assembly line until near the end of 2025. With an i3 sedan coming in 2026, followed by other EVs, BMW is confident electric car sales will continue to rise.
Source: Automotive News / Dataforce
