BMW is intensively laying out its electrified product lineup. At the 2023 Chengdu Auto Show, the BMW Group announced the simultaneous launch of five new energy products led by the innovative all-electric BMW iX1 and BMW i7 M70L. Among them, the BMW iX1 is priced at RMB 299,900~339,900; the BMWi7M70L is priced at RMB 1,899,000; and the new BMW M760Le is priced at RMB 1,189,000. The Innovative BMW XM Label Red Limited Edition and Innovative BMW XM50e with M Hybrid Drive system retail at 2.8 million yuan and 1.468 million yuan, respectively.
“Chinese customers can now find a BMW electric product that suits their needs in almost all market segments.” Gao Xiang, senior vice president of marketing at BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd, said in an interview with the Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as NBD) on August 25, “Although the automotive market is very challenging in the current period, BMW is more capable of responding to the challenges than other companies, especially in terms of the electrification transition, and our balanced development strategy of oil and electricity has achieved very good results .”
Public data show that in the first half of this year, BMW delivered a total of 392,600 BMW and MINI brand cars in China, up 3.7% year-on-year, leading the domestic luxury car market. Among them, BMW’s pure electric car sales in China in the first half of the year was about 45,000 units, up nearly three times year-on-year, both the growth rate and sales scale has exceeded many new car-making forces.
“This proves that the market has a high degree of acceptance of our electric models.” Gao Xiang told reporters that with the launch of more new EV products, BMW will still keep making efforts in the EV market in the second half of the year to promote the steady development of the oil-electric product portfolio in China’s auto market.
“Frequent price adjustments by car companies are not favorable to consumers.”
NBD: Did BMW’s sales results in China in the first half of the year meet expectations? In your opinion, will the Chinese EV market maintain its current state of development in the second half of the year? Can BMW maintain its current rapid growth in the EV market?
Gao Xiang: We are very pleased with the sales performance of pure electric vehicles in the first half of the year, and at the same time we are steadily developing a balanced fuel-electric product portfolio. In the second half of last year, China introduced a number of stimulus policies for the automobile market, so the sales base of the market is relatively high, while this year there is no corresponding policy in support. We will continue to make efforts in electric vehicles, and currently launched a lot of new electric vehicle products, these new products in the next few months, production capacity will gradually climb, but will not be immediately converted into very substantial sales.
NBD: At this year’s Chengdu Auto Show, BMW unveiled five EVs, with most high-end models, and only the iX1, which is more affordable. Next, will BMW lay out its main-selling models, such as launching six- or seven-seat electrified models?
Gao Xiang: BMW iX1 is the entry-level product of our pure electric vehicle, and next year we will launch a pure electric MINI model, which will further lower the threshold of pure electric models. The speed of electrification varies greatly among different classes of vehicles, for example, the iX1 and the 3 Series segment are electrified very quickly, and even more so for domestic brands. At the higher end of the large vehicle range, the market is still skewed towards fuel-efficient vehicles.
In terms of production, we have the flexible production capability of our own deployment between fuel and electricity, which is also a unique advantage of BMW. Four or five years ago people questioned whether this was the right strategy, but it would have been riskier for us to throw our weight around and focus on just one form of power. We want to keep experimenting with a variety of things and keep verifying which direction is the right one. The pace of electrification is higher and lower in different classes and model series, so we retain the ability to produce flexible configurations of trams and tankers.
Electrification is divided into several phases in the BMW Group’s strategy: in the first phase, we started to make pure electric vehicles in 2013; in the second phase, which is the current phase, we will implement electrification in our entire product lineup, from the iX1 to the 7 Series, and in every class in between, we have an electric model layout, for example, this year, we will launch the electric 5 Series. This model is very important for the Chinese market and is also the mainstay of our sales.
