E-mobility will set the tone in just a few years?
That mantra has since been dropped.
BMW will continue to develop combustion models into the next decade.
Munich – BMW was able to achieve the highest profit in the company's history last year.
So far, the global corporation from the Bavarian state capital has done an excellent job of turning mobility to electricity.
However, anyone who believed that cars in Germany will soon be mainly powered by electricity is likely to be mistaken.
This is illustrated by a current report in the
Handelsblatt
, which refers to BMW group groups.
Accordingly, the Munich-based premium manufacturer is planning the development and production of models with combustion engines well into the next decade.
According to reports, these are both petrol and diesel engines.
BMW is driving an electric strategy - but will continue to rely on combustion engines in the future
This strategy is not unwise: While Germany and other countries in the European Union are massively pushing electrification, the picture is different in large parts of the world.
The infrastructure and supply are far from advanced enough for the move away from drives using fossil fuels to be completed quickly.
To ensure that the magnificent sales don't go haywire in the coming years due to the switch from combustion engines to electric motors, BMW is instead practicing openness to technology - and could hold good cards in the long term in a highly competitive and rapidly changing car market.
Proof of the strategy that the Bavarian luxury brand should continue to rely on combustion engines for a long time: the most profitable vehicles are apparently the SUVs with combustion engines built in the USA.
There, BMW could recently afford to raise the prices of the X models by thousands of dollars due to the high demand.
Although BMW and its arch-rival from Stuttgart want to grow noticeably in the electric car sector - currently, both BMW and Mercedes worldwide do not even account for a tenth of sales for electric vehicles, according to the
Handelsblatt
.
According to the report, the Munich manufacturer is planning a new vehicle platform that will form the basis for various drive concepts after 2027.
Whether hydrogen-powered models might even play a role here?
At least BMW is also keeping this form of mobility open and is putting a pilot fleet of fuel cell vehicles on the road:
Electrification: BMW focuses on combustion engines - more than Mercedes and VW
Stricter emissions regulations in Europe (from 2025 the Euro 7 emissions standard will be introduced), North America and China pose huge challenges for car manufacturers such as BMW.
Conversely, however, this means that modern combustion engines must emit far fewer emissions in order to be allowed on the road at all.
It is interesting how differently German car companies assess the future of motorized mobility: Volkswagen is reportedly driving the phase-out of combustion engines much faster, Audi allegedly wants to stop developing combustion models from 2033 onwards.
This, in turn, does not apply to China, where German automakers face a dilemma.
Mercedes seems to be only superficially forcing the exit from combustion technology: Although voluminous engines such as the twelve-cylinder are to be dropped from the program and diesel engines completely, according to the report there are four petrol engines that are treated as sustainable in the group: four of them - and six-cylinder petrol engine.
Fuel gurgling in car history: 43.5 liters per 100 kilometers
Fuel gurgling in car history: 43.5 liters per 100 kilometers
Electric cars and combustion models: BMW outsources engine production
As far as BMW is concerned, the group is apparently planning to use six and eight cylinders well into the 1930s.
What that doesn't change, however, is that combustion engines will no longer be manufactured in this country from 2024 or a short time later.
Instead, the engines are to be manufactured exclusively in Austria, Great Britain and China in the future.
If this information is correct, only electric cars will be produced in the Bavarian factories.
The "New Class" plays an important role at BMW in this context.
Overall, however, Mercedes focuses much more on e-mobility than its rival from the south-east of the republic.
In the short term, this will bring the brand with the star a higher margin, but in the long term BMW could have the better cards due to its greater openness to technology: The global switch to electric vehicles will take several years, if BMW has the larger and more flexible range of models, it is likely sell significantly larger quantities than the closest rivals Mercedes and Volkswagen.
The EU recently took the final decision on a blanket phasing out of vehicles with combustion engines off the table.