According to an announcement made in Munich last year, BMW is ramping up its production of electric vehicles and plans on bringing them to market sooner than previously announced.
By 2023, BMW will significantly expand its lineup of electrified vehicles and add 25 new options for consumers after sustainable luxury vehicles.
Here is everything you need to know about the upcoming generation of new BMW EV models.
BMW’s New Electric Vehicles Getting Ready for Market
The new vehicles will be part of the BMW i sub-brand, which already includes vehicles like the i3 city car and i8 plug-in hybrid. More than half of the 25 new vehicles will be fully electrified, with many of the others being a hybrid version of existing models.
Among the vehicles is the BMW iNext, which was announced in 2018, and is currently expected to arrive on the market in 2021. BMW is also expected to roll out the i4, the i3’s successor, sometime that year.
BMW also plans to launch a range of new plug-in electric hybrid versions of the BMW 3 series, 7 series, and X5. The company is also planning a China-exclusive plug-in hybrid version of the X1, as well as new hybrid versions of the 2 series and 5 series. A European and U.S. version of the hybrid X1 is getting ready for production.
Other EVs expected to arrive before 2023 include a fully-electric Mini, manufactured in England, and an electric version of the X3 crossover called the iX3 that is designed for the Chinese market.
The EV Timetable
Previously, the company had planned to have all of these EVs on the market by 2025 at the earliest. Now, however, BMW is accelerating its electric strategy, and plans to have the cars ready by 2023
The accelerated timetable is based on the success of the company’s current electric and hybrid vehicles, BMW claims it will have doubled its sale of electric vehicles by 2021, compared to its 2019 numbers, and the continued growth of BMW’s EV sales numbers.
The advanced production is also likely in part due to BMW’s new scalable vehicle architecture, which allows the company to swap in a BEV or PHEV powertrain into any vehicle that uses the new architecture.
BMW hasn’t said yet whether or not it will remain committed to further electric vehicle development in the near future — but if current market trends hold, and EVs remain as profitable as they’ve been for BMW, it’s likely that we’ll see even more EVs be announced in the near future.
Businesses across the automotive industry are pivoting to electric, resulting in large-scale production of everything from electric trucks to e-buses — EV market growth suggests that there is definitely room for additional BMW EVs.
BMW Prepping 25 EVs for Launch by 2023
The quicker arrival of the new electric vehicles, which were planned to arrive on the market by 2025, is likely a good sign for those wanting more EVs from BMW.
The 25 new cars include both hybrids and fully-electric vehicles and demonstrate the flexibility of BMW’s new architecture, which could make developing new EV variant models even easier in the future.
A few of the cars that are planned for launch will be exclusive to the Chinese market, but there’s no reason to believe that they won’t eventually be exported to the US and European markets.