Premium car maker BMW will roll out 25 electrified models by 2025. Indicating this, the company said that half of these models would be fully electric. ``Powered by the fifth generation of battery and drive train technology, from 2021 the BMW Group will be capable of offering all-electric vehicles with a range of up to 700 kilometres and plug-in hybrids with an electrical range of up to 100 kilometres,’’ said a release from the company.
BMW Group already manufactured electrified vehicles at ten production facilities. In 2019, Plant Oxford would join this list with the start of production of the fully-electric MINI, the release said.
The BMW Group had announced at the Geneva Motor Show early this month that the BMW i Vision Dynamics, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2017, would be launched as the all-electric BMW i4 and manufactured at the Munich plant. ``The BMW i4 is just one of the 25 electrified models that the BMW Group intends to bring to market by 2025,’’ the release said.
Last month, the BMW Group and the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall penned a letter of intent to establish a joint venture for the local production of fully electric MINI vehicles in China. ``This step is a further clear commitment to the electrified future of the MINI brand and highlights the importance of the Chinese market for the BMW group,’’ the release said.
In the wake of progress in the field of electric mobility, BMW would allocate an increasing amount to research and development in the current year. ``After a spend of € 6,108 million in 2017, upfront expenditure for tomorrow’s mobility will increase significantly in the financial year 2018. Investment will rise by a further high three-digit million euro amount year-on-year, primarily for the ongoing new model initiative as well as continued work on e-mobility and autonomous driving. In absolute terms, the amount could reach the 7 billion Euro mark. The major scale of investment reflects the BMW Group’s determination to play a leading role in transforming the mobility sector with its future-oriented ACES programme: A utomated, C onnected, E lectrified and S ervices,’’ the release said.
In 2017, the BMW Group delivered more than 100,000 electric vehicles to customers for the first time in a single year, mainly driven by the performance of the all-electric BMW i3, sales of which had risen every year since its market launch in 2013. The BMW Group said it would grow sales of its electrified vehicles to 140,000 units globally in 2018. It was hoping to sell over half a million units by the end of 2019, the release said. “Our electric mobility strategy is having a positive impact: the broad range of electrified models we now offer enabled us to cut CO2 emissions across our EU fleet yet again in 2017,” the release quoted CEO Harald Kruger as saying.
With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is a leading premium manufacturer of cars and bikes. The BMW Group network comprises 30 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries. The company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries. In 2017, the BMW Group sold over 2,463,500 passenger vehicles and more than 164,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax in the financial year 2017 was € 10.655 billion on revenues amounting to € 98.678 billion. As of 31 December 2017, the BMW Group had a workforce of 129,932 employee.
