Inexpensive e-cars from BMW: Announcement by CEO creates enthusiasm among brand fans

Created: 11/15/2022 13:11

By: Patrick Freiwah

BMW headquarters in Munich - with a four-cylinder building.

But the future seems mainly electric.

© IMAGO/Rolf Poss

Does BMW take Mercedes as a model and mainly develop cars for the luxury segment?

CEO Zipse talks about the electric car strategy of the future.

Munich - BMW recently started production of the small E-SUV iX1 at the Regensburg plant and is now also offering a high-volume model as a purely electric car, as expected.

The compact BMW innovation should reach dealers and be for sale there in 2022.

With the BMW iX1, the Bavarian car manufacturer is hoping for an "impulse for the accelerated ramp-up of electromobility", as the premium brand explains.

The new addition to the range is definitely affordable fun by BMW standards: prices for the electric SUV from Bavaria start at 55,000 euros.

After the end of production of the BMW i3, this is the brand's cheapest electric car that is available as a new car.

The question that has been on the minds of many fans for some time: Are you following in the footsteps of arch-rival Mercedes, who in the future will only see themselves as a manufacturer of luxury vehicles?

Continue to serve BMW "lower market segment".

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse has now commented on this at a Bosch event.

The 58-year-old said on the sidelines of the meeting in Berlin: "We will not leave the lower market segment.

Even if you see yourself as a premium manufacturer, it is wrong to leave the lower market segment.” The Reuters news agency quotes the BMW boss as saying that this will be the core of the business in the future.

However, with MINI, the group still has a brand under its umbrella that is located in the lower price segment and would possibly even justify the move to only sell expensive premium cars with the parent brand.

BMW continues to drive on multiple tracks - combustion engines and hydrogen remain up to date

CEO Zipse is playing the electrification card: According to him, it is important that as many drivers as possible switch from combustion engines to electric vehicles as quickly as possible.

Development board member Frank Weber, on the other hand, recently explained that combustion engines also have a future at BMW and that the current units will be modified to the upcoming Euro 7 emissions standard.

The manufacturer will also continue to research the field of fuel cell technology.

These mega-rich lost a lot of money in 2022

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As far as the share of electric cars in total sales is concerned, there is still room for improvement at BMW: by the third quarter of 2022, around 1.75 million models had been delivered worldwide, including 120,000 electric vehicles.

However, the markets in the USA and China in particular are creating optimism for BMW for 2023.