Electric vehicles have emerged as the star performer for German luxury car maker BMW, reflecting the global trend that points to growing enthusiasm for EVs, but static or falling demand for new petrol and diesel cars.
BMW’s sales for the first nine months of 2020 were released this week, showing sales in the last quarter – including Mini and Rolls Royce – acutally gained 8.6 per cent to 675,680 vehicles.
But most of this growth came from its electric offerings, which jumped by 46 per cent in the third quarter to 54,710 (battery electric and plug in hyrbids). For the first nine months, overall sales were down 12.5 per cent to 1.6 million, while electrics were up 20 per cent to 116,381.
“We are especially pleased with the sales growth of almost 50 percent in electrified vehicles. This makes electromobility a substantial growth driver, said Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, and responsible for customer, brands, and sales.
” We have already delivered around 10,000 fully electric Mini’s since the start of the year. This shows how much our customers appreciate this car.”
Other than the fully electric Mini, the strong performance was driven by the company’s plug-in hybrid variants of the BMW X2, BMW 3 Series, and BMW 5 Series. Deliveries of the fully electric BMW iX3 are expected to begin before the end of 2020.
In 2021, BMW is set to significantly increase its electrified line-up through the introduction of the fully electric BMW i4 and the BMW iNext.
BMW is aiming at selling more than 7 million EVs by 2030, with two-thirds intended to be fully electric models. It plans to offer 25 electrified models by 2023 – including a fully-electric variant of the next-generation BMW 7 Series, the BMW X1 and the BMW 5 Series.
EV sales for BMW are up across the company’s four primary regions, Germany, Europe, the Americas, and China. In Germany, electric sales were up around 44% in the third quarter and have accounted for around 12% of total sales so far this year.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
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