BMW E-segment wagon i5 Touring (Source: BMW)

  The BMW Group aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25% in 2025, 55% in 2030 and 100% in 2035 in its decarbonization strategy. To achieve these targets, the Group is developing the Neue Klasse EV-only platform and accelerating electrification. The production of the models based on the Neue Klasse platform will start at the Debrecen Plant in Hungary in H2 2025 and at the Munich Plant in Germany in 2026, followed by the plants in China and Mexico. In July 2024, the BMW Group announced plans to also produce batteries for the Neue Klasse vehicles globally. The Group is setting up five new battery facilities near vehicle assembly plants.

  The BMW Group’s sales of battery EVs (BEVs) increased by 74.1% year-over-year (y/y) to 375,716 units in 2023 and grew by 19.1% y/y to 294,052 units for the period from January to September 2024. The share of BEVs in global total sales reached 16.8% for the first nine months of 2024. There was a decline in the EV sales in the European and American markets from H2 2023, but BMW expects a larger growth in the near future in different regions. The BMW Group plans to have more than 15 EV models in its line-up by the end of 2024, making half of its total deliveries all electric by 2030.

  Regarding new model launches in 2024, the BMW brand released the new X2 coupe-style compact SUV and the new 5 Series Touring E-segment wagon as well as their EV versions. The MINI brand launched the line-up of models with a variety of drivetrain technologies including the new MINI Cooper and its EV version, the new electric SUV model MINI Aceman, and the new MINI Countryman with its MHV and EV versions.

  The BMW Group is renovating facilities at many of its vehicle assembly plants for manufacturing EVs. The Munich Plant in Germany will move the internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle　manufacturing to other plants and become an EV-only plant from 2027. The production of the MINI EV models started at the Leipzig Plant in Germany in 2024, and will begin at the Oxford Plant in the U.K. from 2026.

  In the Chinese market, the competition in the smaller segment EVs is challenging, but not in the upper segment where BMW is active. In 2023, BMW sold over 100,000 EVs in the country. The BMW Group is manufacturing the BMW iX3 electric SUV and the MINI EV models at the Chinese plants and export them to various countries. The EU started imposing import tariffs on Chinese vehicles entering the European market from July 2024. BMW doesn’t consider this decision a fair practice.

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