Join Tavares and De Meo
BMW CEO Oliver Oliver Zipse warns that setting a hard end date for combustion engine cars could make cars unattainable for many. With this he more or less joins Stellantis colleague Carlos Tavares.
Like Tavares, BMW CEO Zipse thinks that the hard, mandatory farewell to petrol cars means that affordable cars will no longer exist. This would make owning a car an unfeasible card for many, Zipse also warns. “If car ownership suddenly makes it only for the rich, you are doing very dangerously,” he said in an interview.
Now that seems a bit strange coming from a man who is at the head of a luxury brand like BMW. Zipse therefore speaks in a more general sense, but also puts his words into action. Unlike many other brands, BMW has not yet made any firm promises about when it will go ‘fully electric’, although that should be the case in the EU from 2035. Zipse says that he has more than enough electric supply for that time, but for the above reason also thinks that politicians should be very careful with enforcing purely electric car mobility.
Zipse made his statements when announcing the enormous investments that are being made to prepare the factories in and around the American Spartanburg for the production of EVs and batteries. Of course BMW is firmly committed to this, but at the same time it does not wish to say goodbye to the combustion engine for the time being. Zipse: “There is no reason to think that the internal combustion engine will disappear on a global level within 15 years”.
In addition to Tavares from Stellantis and Zipse from BMW, Renault CEO Luca de Meo also believes that EVs will be more expensive than traditionally powered cars for the time being. It is important to note that petrol cars are cheaper in most countries than in the Netherlands, because the bpm drives up the price here. EVs are therefore more attractive in the Netherlands.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl