BMW Group's plan for 25% of sales to be electrified in Europe by 2021

Enhancing EV production network, directly sourcing lithium and cobalt for battery cells

2020/12/16

Summary

  The BMW Group is accelerating its electrification plan to achieve its corporate CO2 emission target set by the EU and continue its sustainable businesses. In addition, the Group is focusing on developing important technologies including autonomous driving systems, mobility services, and digital transformation.

  In its electrification plan, the Group will launch at least 25 new electrified vehicles globally with at least 13 electric vehicles (EVs) and the rest consisting of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs) by 2023. In 2020, the MINI brand’s first battery EV and the BMW iX3, the EV SUV equipped with the fifth-generation electric powertrain (eDrive), have been released. The BMW i4 EV coupe and the iX (renamed from the iNEXT) based on a new, scalable toolkit are expected to go on the market in 2021.

  Regarding the autonomous driving field, the BMW Group and Daimler AG announced that they would put their joint development project temporarily on hold in June 2020. The two companies decided that the timing is not appropriate due to development　expenses of a shared technology platform and current economic conditions. Samsung Electronics will supply the BMW iX with its 5G-capable telematics control unit that is essential for the autonomous driving system.

  As for mobility services, the BMW Group and Daimler AG agreed in March 2018 to merge their business units and established five joint ventures for ride-hailing, parking and car-sharing services. The five joint ventures had 279 million interactions with 96 million customers during the period January-September 2020. However, Share Now car-sharing joint venture exited North America in February 2020 due to rising operating costs and a low number of users.

  In China, the BMW Group’s largest market, BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA), a joint venture with Brilliance China Automobile, is increasing its production capacity. BBA will double the production capacity at its Tiexi Plant in Shenyang to 800,000 units by adding a new plant on the site, and will extend the R&D Center. In addition, Spotlight Automotive Limited, a joint venture with Great Wall Motor, began building a new plant to produce the MINI EVs from 2023.

  The BMW Group’s global unit sales for the period January-September 2020 fell 12.5% year-over-year (y/y) to 1.64 million units. Vehicle sales showed a sign of recovery in the third quarter of 2020 after a significant plunge due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Group’s revenues dropped 7.1% y/y to EUR 69.51 billion, while EBIT declined by 48.2% y/y to EUR 2.63 billion with the EBIT margin of 3.8%. According to the Group’s outlook for 2020 presented in the quarterly statement to September 30, 2020, global deliveries for the full year of 2020 are expected to decrease significantly from the previous year. The Group continues to expect the EBIT margin to lie within a range of 0-3% which was originally forecasted in May 2020.

BMW iX3 BMW iX
BMW iX3, the first model with fifth-generation eDrive (Beijing Motor Show 2020) BMW iX to be launched at the end of 2021 (Photo: BMW)


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