BMW President Oliver Zipse said at an online press conference that the company will continue to develop, build and sell cars with internal combustion engines, including plug-in hybrids.
“If there are no customers [for these vehicles] in our 140 markets, we will stop producing them, “he said.
BMW’s strategy has been to maintain flexibility in its engineering as it develops new vehicles so that its factories can switch quickly and easily from the production of purely internal combustion cars to the production of plug-in hybrids or electric cars as demand market changes. The engineering architectures underlying BMW vehicles are designed to facilitate their construction with electric, hybrid or purely internal combustion energy.
“We are much more flexible than the world thinks we are,” said Zipse.
BMW has released few details about its new electric i4 sedan, as well as images of the exterior. It is a four-door car similar in profile to the BMW 4 series powered by oil. It will be available in versions with up to about 300 miles of autonomy estimated by the US EPA and can produce up to 530 horsepower.
Last November, BMW unveiled the iX, an all-electric SUV that aims to be the model of the brand’s sub-brand of electric vehicles “i”. The iX is expected to go into production later this year. The i4 is also due to start selling in Europe later this year and in the United States early next year, a BMW spokesman said.
BMW will offer electric models in 90% of the market segments in which it competes by 2023, the company said in an announcement. In 2030, the company expects about half of its global sales to be electric vehicles.
But there is at least one mark on the BMW Group which is fully electric. BMW’s Mini division will only offer electric cars in the mid-2030s, the company announced.
The Mini’s small cars, which often travel short distances in urban environments, are suitable for buyers of electric cars, said Zipse. Currently, Mini offers a fully electric model, the Mini Cooper SE. A next generation version of the Mini Countryman SUV, which will go into production in 2023, will also be available in an electric version.
“There will be an electric Rolls-Royce in this decade and probably not at the end of this decade,” said Zipse.