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BMW’s CEO Calls For Stability And Not To Blindly Follow The EV Hype
BMW saw its sales remain fairly stable compared to last year, largely thanks to the sharply increased sales of fully electric cars. However, BMW’s CEO emphasizes the importance of a broad portfolio, in which the combustion engine also plays an important role.
BMW sold 2.3 percent more cars in the past six months than a year earlier. The brand owes the (albeit small) growth mainly to the 34 percent increase in sales of fully electric BMWs. At the same time, according to the brand, the good sales of expensive luxury models and sporty M versions also play a role.
So it’s not just EVs that are to blame, and CEO Oliver Zipse emphasizes how important it is for BMW to keep betting on multiple horses, especially at a time when many manufacturers are backtracking on their EV targets because sales growth is not going as fast as expected. Zipse: “I have often emphasized that blindly following the hype is not a strategy. Emotion and nervousness have never been good advisors,” he says. According to the CEO, it is clear that BMW’s strategy, in which there is room for a variety of drive types, has proven to be a “robust strategy” in such “turbulent times.”
Not only that, according to Zipse, it is also important that the future doesn’t focus solely on electric cars. He fears that the exception that the EU wants to make for e-fuels will still mean that the combustion engine will have to make way for 2035. “If the European Commission does nothing to increase the use of low-CO2 fuels, it will still indirectly remain a willful ban on combustion engines. We continue to believe that a categorical ban on combustion technology is wrong, and we continue to focus on efficient combustion engines and plug-in hybrid technology openly.”
BMW’s CEO, Oliver Zipse
