Since 2013, BMW has been in the game of electric cars and it was then that the company envisioned the future of electrification in automobiles. The ‘i’ brand has been very successful right from the i3 all-electric car to the i8 plug-in hybrid. And now, BMW is looking to expand that portfolio and bring in a lot more cars for its customers. The company announced at an investor meeting that it is going big on its electrification plan. The company plans to launch 25 Plug-In hybrids and 12 All-Electric cars by 2025. Over the next couple of years, the company will focus on bringing out plug-in hybrid versions of its existing models.
Back in 2017, deliveries of electrified vehicles for BMW jumped by 65.6 percent to 103,080 units. Considering the strong growth it has seen in this space, the BMW Group announced that it will spend more on research and development in 2018. The company spent 6 billion euros in 2017 and that figure jumped to 7 billion in 2018.
The company met its target of selling 1,40,000 EVs worldwide and has already sold 4 lakh electrified cars across the globe. The company is eyeing the 5 lakh unit sales milestone in 2019. The surge in sales will be helped by the introduction of new products and these will include all-electric BMW iX3, the new i4, and MINI. The BMW Group already manufactures electrified vehicles at ten production facilities.
In 2019, Plant Oxford will join this list with the start of production of the fully-electric MINI. The BMW i4 is just one of the 25 electrified models that the BMW Group intends to bring to market by 2025. Half of these models will be fully electric. Powered by the fifth generation of battery and drivetrain technology, from 2021 the BMW Group will of offer all-electric vehicles with a range of up to 700 kilometers and plug-in hybrids with an electrical range of up to 100 kilometers.