The first quarter of 2020 was not kind to the BMW Group. The Bavarians posted a 20 percent decrease in sale, across their BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands. But there is a silver lining in these numbers. According to BMW, the sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles were remarkable year-t0-date.
BMW reports 30,692 sales of plug-in electric cars, the equivalent of a 13.9 percent increase year-over-year. “This means we are also on track to meet the EU’s CO2 targets. We do not see any necessity to defer climate protection goals”, said Pieter Nota.
With the advent of the recently introduced X1 xDrive25e and X2 xDrive25e, BMW has a powerful fleet of electrified vehicles which also includes the 225xe Active Tourer, the 330e, the 530e, the 745e/745Le, the X3 xDrive30e and the X5 xDrive45e. A new BMW 545e is also in the works, while the MINI brand offers its own share of plug-in hybrids.
On a group perspective, BMW aims to sell 25 percent electric powertrain vehicles in Europe by 2021, 33 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.
Up to the end of 2023, BMW plans to add no less than 25 different electric and plug-in hybrid models in its portfolio. By the end of 2021, BMW aims to sell more than 1,000,000 electrified cars worldwide.
But it remains to be seen whether the sales growth of electrified vehicles will continue this year since BMW, just like all other automakers, are in a hold situation with factories being shutdown around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have an impact not only on this year’s sales, but also on future strategies. Unless, we see a quick economic recovery.
