Art of Gears
Fansided

BMW Expects 15 to 25 Percent of Sales to be EVs By 2025

By Wade Thiel

BERLIN, GERMANY - JULY 24: A BMW car parks on July 24, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Germany's biggest car companies VW, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler are being investigated on suspicion of operating a secret technology cartel. (Photo by Steffi Loos/Getty Images)
BERLIN, GERMANY - JULY 24: A BMW car parks on July 24, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Germany's biggest car companies VW, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Daimler are being investigated on suspicion of operating a secret technology cartel. (Photo by Steffi Loos/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

BMW has a big push for electric vehicles coming soon, and as a result of this shift in design and production, the company expects to sell a significant number of them.

If you look at the current auto industry, it’s clear that electric vehicles are going to be the driving factor in the upcoming years. BMW, Ford, Volvo, Toyota, Honda and several others invested heavily in the technology in the last decade and continue to do so. We’re about to see all that hard research and development work come to fruition.

According to Car Scoops, BMW has more than 20 electrified models in the works right now that will debut to the public by 2025. BMW expects significant gains in EV sales, too. The company told Car and Driver that it believes EV will make up between 15 and 25 percent of all the vehicles it sells.

BMW Still Seems Uncertain About Projections

Despite saying it expects up to a quarter of its sales to come from electrified vehicles, it seems that BMW isn’t really sure how many electrified versions of its vehicles it will be able to sell.

i8
i8 /

Oliver Zipse, BMW’s board member for production, said that 15 to 25 percent is the expected sales but that it’s quite possible for the company to sell far fewer or more EV vehicles. He even said that the company could see up to 40 percent, depending on how quickly shoppers take to the new EV products.

New Architectures Make Room for Many Possibilities

In an effort to simplify the approach to making a variety of vehicles powered by many different types of powertrains, BMW will have two similar platforms for the Fifth Generation architecture used on BMW’s future models.

Next: Volkswagen Might Develop a Four-Door EV Beetle

According to Car and Driver, the only major differences between the two types will be that one supports front-wheel drive while the other supports rear wheel drive. There will also be all-wheel drive, but that will work off both of the platforms.

These platforms will both have room for a gasoline engine, a plug-in hybrid powertrain, or a fully electric powertrain. With BMW’s uncertainty about the future of electrification, the company thought it best to build a platform that can basically do anything. Flexibility is key to the Fifth Generation architecture.

BMW i3
BMW i3 /

Flexibility Through Simplification

This is part of an overall strategy to simplify BMW’s offerings. BMW wants all of its parts to be closely related. Currently, most of its engines are similar, despite the fact that they have more or fewer cylinders than each other.

BMW wants to apply this same logic to vehicle platforms and EV powertrains. EV powertrains will have different tiers or modules. This will enable BMW to offer different levels of performance ranging from 134 hp to over 400 hp, according to Car and Driver.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold. One thing’s for sure, though, BMW is ready for just about any shift in the industry, whether it’s towards or away from EVs.

Home/Car News