BMW has a clear target for 2021: Munich wants to sell twice as many fully electric cars this year as last year. Some new models should contribute to this.
Last year, the BMW Group saw the sale of (partly) electric cars grow strongly. Plug-in hybrids and BEVs together accounted for 192,646 cars (BMW and Mini) sold. That was 31.8 percent more than a year earlier and 8.3 percent of the total number of cars sold by the group. This year, we need to add a lot more, says Sales CEO Pieter Nota. In a statement, he states that the BMW Group wants to sell one and a half times as many cars with a plug this year. Focused on fully electric cars, the target is even higher, the sale of BEVs must double this year. BMW does not distinguish between plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars in its sales figures, so the absolute number of BEVs sold is not known.
Achieving that goal largely depends on two new models: the BMW’s iX and i4. They will appear on the market this year. The iX has already been revealed, the i4 (essentially an electrically powered equivalent of the 4 Series Gran Coupé) has yet to appear. By 2023, a total of 25 models with a (partly) electric powertrain must be available at BMW and Mini, half of which will be fully electric. Among other things, an iX1, an i3 (electric 3-series) and i7 (electric top limousine in addition to the 7-series) are in the pipeline in the coming years. BMW recently announced that for this reason it is increasing the production capacity for fully electric cars.