BMW sales of full battery electric cars nearly treble in first half

German luxury automaker BMW has reported a near trebling of sales of full battery electric cars in the first half of the calendar year, and overall sales of EVs, including plug in hybrids, more than double over the sme period.

“As expected, our customers are buying significantly more electrified vehicles right now,” BMW chairman Oliver Zipse said.

“In the first half of the year our sales grew by almost 150 percent. In our domestic market of Germany, nearly one in four BMWs and around 30 percent of Mini sold already have an electric drive train.

The number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles BMW delivered in the first half jumped by 148.6% to 153,243 units in the first half, while deliveries of  all-electric models jumped by 183.9% to 36,087 units, compared to the 12,712 units delivered in the same period of 2020.

“By the end of the year, we aim to have a total of one million fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the roads and, by 2025, two million pure electric vehicles,” Zipse said. “By then, we aim to deliver ten times the number of BEVs we sold in 2020.”

Over the company’s entire line-up, electrified vehicles accounted for 11.4% of total deliveries for the first half of 2020, and it expects this to be significantly higher by year end.

“Further electrification of our vehicle fleet is the focus of our short and medium-term planning,” said board member Nicholas Peter.

“The all-electric BMW iX has been rolling off the production line at our plant in Dingolfing since July. This will be followed in the autumn by the all-electric BMW i4 from our main plant in Munich.”

“All our decisions are clearly focused on the main topics of electrification, sustainability and digitalisation. We are using available resources intelligently for maximum impact.”

BMW successfully launched the BMW iX3 in the first half of the year, and expects the all-electric BMW i4 and iX models to follow in the coming months as the Northern Hemisphere moves into Autumn.

Further all-electric models will be presented in the near future, according to the company’s earnings press release, and over the next two years BMW expects its electrification efforts to cover nearly the entire breadth of the company’s portfolio.

Specifically, up to 2025 BMW expects its sale of all-electric vehicles to increase by more than 50% per-annum and result in delivery of around 2 million all-electric vehicles.