BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse said in an online press conference that the company will continue to develop, build and sell cars with internal combustion engines, including plug-in hybrids.
“When there are no customers [for these vehicles] we will stop producing them in our 140 markets, ”he said.
BMW’s strategy has long been to maintain flexibility in its engineering when developing new vehicles so that its factories can quickly and easily switch from producing purely internal combustion cars to producing plug-in hybrids or electric cars as demand increases. shifts in the market. The underlying engineering architectures for BMW vehicles are designed to make it easy to build them with electric, hybrid or purely internal combustion power.
“We are much more flexible than the world thinks we are,” said Zipse.
BMW has released few details about its new i4 electric sedan other than exterior images. It is a four-door car similar in profile to the petroleum-powered BMW 4 Series. It will be available in versions with an estimated range of approximately 500 miles according to the US EPA and can produce up to 530 horsepower.
Last November, BMW unveiled the iX, an all-electric SUV intended as the flagship model for the brand’s “i” electric car sub-brand. The iX is expected to go into production later this year. The i4 is also expected to hit the market in Europe later this year and in the US early next year, a BMW spokesman said.
BMW will offer electric models in 90% of the market segments in which it competes by 2023, the company said in an announcement. By 2030, the company expects approximately half of its global sales to be electric vehicles.
But there is at least one brand in the BMW Group that goes completely electric. BMW’s Mini division will offer only electric cars by the mid-2030s, the company announced.
Mini’s small cars, often driving short distances in urban environments, are great for electric car buyers, Zipse said. Mini currently offers one fully electric model, the Mini Cooper SE. A new generation version of the Mini Countryman SUV, which will go into production in 2023, will also be available in an electric version.
“There will be an electric Rolls-Royce in this decade and probably not late in this decade,” said Zipse.