Electric BMWs up to 10 times more popular than petrol equivalents in the Netherlands

BMW once took the EV path in an extremely creative way with the i3, but nowadays usually opts for a more conservative path. That seems to work, because BMW’s electric models have become an indispensable part of the street scene. This is of course even more true in the Netherlands, where non-electric cars still receive a hefty BPM penalty and are often less attractive for business drivers for all kinds of reasons.

There are now plenty of BMWs with an electric equivalent. We know the X1 as the electric iX1, the as i5. We are not including the latter in the comparison, because the ‘old’ 5 is still available as a Touring and therefore influences the sales figures of the petrol version. With the other four models, the comparison is fair, and without exception the vast majority of buyers appear to choose the electric variant.

This even applies to the mighty 7 Series. Up to and including November, 166 electric BMW i7s were sold in the Netherlands, compared to 71 otherwise motorized 7-series. So for every 7-series there are about 2.3 i7s on the license plate. With the X3 that ratio is even sharper. The electric iX3 is the oldest car in BMW’s current EV range, but still generated 1,588 Dutch orders in 2023. BMW sold 673 copies of the regular X3.

The two remaining models, the X1 and the 4-series Gran Coupé, are also BMW’s two most popular models in the Netherlands. At least: that applies to the electric versions. Remarkably, the i4 attracted just more buyers than the iX1 with 2,899 units, although the difference of 30 units is actually negligible. For those wondering: yes, the iX1 has also been available this entire year, and yes, the i4 was also more popular than the iX1 in the last month.

The big difference between the two model series only comes when we take the traditionally driven equivalents: the 4-series Gran Coupé has attracted only 299 Dutch buyers so far in 2023, while the X1 was sold 1,278 times. For every regular 4-series Gran Coupe, almost 10 i4s are registered! The regular X1 is quite popular, partly thanks to its plug-in drivetrains, but the electric iX1 also rolls out of a Dutch showroom twice as often.

Mercedes

If we add a major competitor for comparison, we see a similar picture at Mercedes. With 1043 copies, the EQA attracted roughly 2.4x more buyers than the regular GLA, while the GLB even attracted almost three times as many buyers as the equivalent GLB. The EV battle is far from over worldwide, but the chapter ‘premium products for the Dutch market’ seems to have long since been settled in favor of the electric car.