VMuch of the talk at the BMW balance sheet press conference this Wednesday is about electromobility. The Munich car manufacturer sold 215,000 fully electric vehicles last year, twice as many as in the previous year and wants to “further increase the pace”, as CEO Oliver Zipse announces. Next to him on the darkened stage are the massive BMW i7 and the angular BMW iX1 – they are two new models in the ever-growing electric fleet. So everything will only be plugged in in the future?
Certainly not. Because when asked whether climate-neutral synthetic fuels should also be used in combustion engines in Europe after 2035, the BMW boss also reveals himself to be a keeper of the status quo. Today, customers have a choice of five types of drive, says Zipse, and in addition to the fully and partially electric variants as well as diesel and petrol engines, this also includes hydrogen drives.
It doesn’t make sense to simply switch off four out of five drive types in 2035, because that would put the industry in a new, dangerous dependency when it comes to the raw materials for battery cars. “Diversity means resilience,” is Zipse’s motto. And he also raises doubts as to whether it will be possible to provide the complete charging infrastructure for electromobility by 2035. In fact, the range of plug-in cars is growing noticeably faster than that of the charging stations required for them.
No contradiction to electrification
For Zipse, the commitment to e-fuels is not a contradiction to electrification. And so, in the current discussion, the BMW boss joins the Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume, who, above all in his role as Porsche boss, is campaigning for exceptions to the already agreed ban on combustion engines in the EU from 2035: “There is no other region of the world , which plans to ban this drive technology.”
At BMW, the board of directors expects sales growth this year, which should preferably increase by a mid-double-digit percentage in the upper vehicle segment. Drivers should of course also be new electric models. Their share of total sales is expected to increase from 9 percent to 15 percent, which requires growth in the upper double-digit percentage range.
From 2025 onwards, the so-called new class will shift the focus of the drive even more to e-mobility. Then the first all-electric sedans in the format of the BMW 3 Series will roll off the production line at the new plant in Debrecen, Hungary. To do this, BMW relies on a modular system for which an 800-volt drive architecture is being developed for the first time and in which batteries with round cells are used.
1 billion euros for a factory for high-voltage batteries
CFO Nicolas Peter expects the new cells not only to significantly reduce charging times, but also to reduce costs by 50 percent. According to Peter, the sixth generation of the electric drive will bring the electric cars to the level of the combustion engines in terms of costs and margins. In Debrecen, the second largest Hungarian city on the border with Romania, BMW is investing almost 1 billion euros in a factory for high-voltage batteries. At least six New Class models are planned for the high-volume mid-size segment.
With the move towards electric drive, BMW is in the automotive mainstream. But even if more than half of all BMWs sold will be fully electric by 2030, the management level in BMW headquarters, known as the “four-cylinder”, is not writing off the combustion engine. “We are firmly convinced of a coexistence in the next ten years,” says Development Board member Frank Weber.
The new class should also be prepared for hydrogen propulsion. BMW has just launched a small series of the current X5 with fuel cell drive. “For us, hydrogen-electric vehicles complement e-mobility in a meaningful way, albeit with a time lag,” says Zipse. And Weber calls a corresponding gas station network as a prerequisite. So far there are only around 100 hydrogen filling stations in Germany and they are geared towards heavy goods traffic. In the second half of the decade, BMW wants to be ready for series production.
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