BMW More than Doubles EV Sales in First Quarter

BMW Group reports 149.2% growth in sales of battery-electric models in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same quarter in 2021.With the arrival of the i4 and iX, the automaker sold 35,289 BMW and Mini EVs in the first quarter.The battery-electric BMW iX1 and i7 will debut later this year, with the Group seeking to double EV sales once again in 2023.BMW’s battery-electric vehicle sales received a serious boost in the past 12 months, with the Group reporting 149.2% growth in sales for the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2021. The automaker’s BMW and Mini brands, taken together, more than doubled sales of all-electric models, despite the Group’s overall global sales falling 6.2% in the first quarter owing to some industry-wide challenges now familiar to us. But in the US, total BMW and Mini deliveries grew 3.7%, reaching 80,590 units for the quarter. Related Story BMW iX M60 Brings 610 HP to Munich’s Big EV Overall, the BMW Group sold 35,289 BMW and Mini EVs in the first three months of this year globally, with the automaker crediting the roll-out of the BMW i4 and BMW iX for the boost. The automaker now looks to more than double its sales of BEVs in 2023—a task which now seems virtually assured given the arrival of two new EVs, in addition to the BMW i7 later this year.”Our clear focus is on ramping up electromobility. In the first quarter, we stepped up the rapid pace of growth from 2021 even further and are fully on track to meet our ambitious growth targets for fully electric vehicles in 2022,” said Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for customer, brands, sales.As a result, EV sales in the first quarter of this year represented 5.9% of the group’s total deliveries, which amounted to 596,907 vehicles. That’s the good news. The iX (pictured above) will soon be followed by the smaller iX1, which is expected to be more affordable. BMW The bad news is that BMW’s EV sales will need to grow by about 6% each year to achieve the Group’s previously stated estimate of EV sales accounting for 50% of its global deliveries by 2030. That’s a tall order, even taking into account Europe’s surge in EV sales over the past two years.”In 2022 we want to continue our profitable growth and we will systematically expand our range of fully electric vehicles. We have set ourselves particularly ambitious growth targets in this area and aim to more than double our sales of fully electric vehicles from last year,” Nota said earlier this year. Related Story BMW Starts Building the i4 Tesla-Fighter Can BMW maintain this growth pace for the next seven years, while the rate of EV adoption in several key markets like North America lags behind Europe? In 2021 just 3% of all vehicles sold in the US were EVs (not counting PHEVs), but 10% in Europe in the same period. So the shares of EV sales in various key markets are expected to grow at very different rates through the decade.”The Mini brand will have an all-electric product range by the early 2030s, while Rolls-Royce will become an all-electric brand from 2030. All future new models from BMW Motorrad in the field of urban mobility will also be fully electric, like the BMW CE 04, the new electric champion for the city,” the automaker adds.The i4 and iX won’t be the only battery-electric BMW models offered stateside for long, with the iX1 slated to enter production later this year, alongside the BMW i7. But it’s the iX1 that could become the brand’s top-selling EV, expected to launch with a starting price just under $50,000. This should make it a compelling alternative to a number of other small electric SUVs and crossovers currently available, including the Tesla Model Y, which now starts at just over $60,000.Perhaps helping BMW achieve its 50% EV sales target by 2030 will be a gradual trailing off of certain BMW and Mini internal-combustion models, which would give more weight to electric vehicles and serve to balance the overall portfolio. SIGN UP