Sales of fully electric BMW vehicles more than doubled in 2022, with the Mini Electric standing out, including as the best-selling Mini model variant.
The BMW Group published sales figures for 2022 on Tuesday, revealing it had sold a total of 215,755 fully electric BMW and Mini vehicles throughout the year.
BMW Group also delivered its 500,000th fully electric vehicle towards the end of 2022.
“Our strong product line-up is the best response to a challenging environment – and enabled us to more than double our sales of fully-electric vehicles again in 2022,” said Pieter Nota, member of the board of management of BMW AG responsible for customer, brands, sales.
“We are confident we can build on this success in 2023, as we continue to see particularly high order intake for our fully-electric models.”
The BMW Group offers a range of electric vehicles and is planning to expand its electric line-up later this year with the debut of the BMW i5. It aims for 15 per cent of new vehicle sales to be fully electric in 2023.
Of particular importance to the company’s plans, however, is the fully electric Mini Cooper SE, which was the best selling model with 43,744 electric Mini Cooper SEs sold during 2022, an increase of 25.5% over 2021.
In all, sales of electrified Minis (including plug-in hybrids) increased by 14.3% to 60,839, accounting for 21% of total Mini sales globally.
The Mini brand will also get two new electric models in 2023, with BMW promising to celebrate the brand’s 110 years of automotive production at its main plant in Oxford with the first two fully electric models of the new Mini family.
BMW also reports solid interest in the fully electric Rolls Royce Spectre, following a highly successful world premiere in October. Rolls Royce plans to build only fully-electric cars by the end of 2030.
Pieter Nota also highlighted BMW Group’s next milestone for 2023, with the aim of fully electric vehicles accounting for 15% of total sales.
“We will maintain our course for profitable growth in 2023,” said Nota. “The clear focus will be on continuing to ramp up electromobility.
“The next milestone for 2023 is for 15% of our total sales to come from fully electric vehicles. With the launch of the BMW i5 later this year, we are taking another important step on the road to electrifying our model line-up.”
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.