Anmar Frangoul
BMW released Tuesday the details of an electric concept car, with production of the vehicle expected to start in 2021.
In
an interview with CNBC Tuesday, CEO Oliver Zipse described the BMW
Concept i4 vehicle as bringing “electromobility to the heart of the BMW
brand.”
“It’s fast, it has an acceleration of less than four
seconds from zero to 100 kilometers an hour, it has a range of 600
kilometers (about 373 miles),” Zipse, who was speaking to CNBC’s Annette
Weisbach, said. The price is yet to be announced.
He went on to
note that the company sold more than 140,000 electrified vehicles last
year, stating he was “quite positive about our profitability in the
future, even with electromobility.”
On the subject of the
coronavirus, Zipse told CNBC that he did not see any large interruptions
to BMW’s supply chain yet, adding that the company was “monitoring the
situation very closely.”
Big firms making moves in electromobility
In
2017, the BMW Group said it expected “electrified vehicles to account
for between 15-25% of sales.” Last year, it announced it would, together
with China’s Great Wall Motor,
construct a plant in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province, that will produce fully-electric models of its Mini brand.
The firm is one of several major manufacturers developing an electric vehicle offering to challenge electric car makers like
Tesla.
In November 2019, the
Volkswagen Group
officially started series production of its ID.3 electric car, with the
German carmaker planning to launch “almost 70 new electric models” on
its platform by 2028.
Last month, Jaguar Land Rover unveiled its
Project Vector concept vehicle, which it described as being both
“autonomy ready” and electric.
Worldwide electric car sales hit 1.98 million in 2018, according to the IEA, with global stock reaching 5.12 million.
China’s
electric car market was the biggest on the planet in 2018 — a little
over one million electric cars were sold there — the IEA says, with
Europe and the U.S. following behind.
The use of electric
vehicles, or EVs, is not solely restricted to individual consumers.
Initiatives such as EV100, which is led by international non-profit The
Climate Group, are seeking to increase their use in the corporate world.
“We’re
working to accelerate mass uptake of electric vehicles by businesses
who buy cars, trucks and vans by the thousand,” Sandra Roling, the head
of EV100, explained in a statement sent to CNBC via email. “The sooner
this happens, the sooner EVs will become widely affordable for ordinary
people.”
“Our research shows that corporate demand for EVs is
increasing, but is still not being met by manufacturers” Roling went on
to state. “As the climate emergency escalates, U.S. manufacturers need
to shift to a higher gear on producing EVs – or they risk falling behind
the global market and losing their largest customers.”
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