It was a long journey for BMW. The Munich-based company is the only German carmaker that had long refrained from committing to an electric future for automobiles and continually emphasized that diesel and gasoline vehicles also had a bright future. Almost as if the EU didn't have a plan to phase out combustion engines.
At BMW, they refer to it as a "technology-open approach," a phrase that comes up a lot when you speak with company executives. So frequently, in fact, that it seemed unclear for quite a long time whether BMW would ever seriously commit to electric cars or if it was just waiting for the fad to pass.
German car buyers were thinking roughly the same thing in recent years - which in part had to do with the zigzagging path laid out by policymakers in Berlin. First, the government said that electric cars were vital for the country's shift to renewable energies. Then, the federal government suddenly cancelled state subsidies for the purchase of electric cars. Electricity costs are high and internal combustion cars were long seen as the more affordable option. Recently, though, the costs have largely merged.
The result, though, was that the huge e-mobility boom never materialized here in Germany. Nor did it in wide swathes of Europe and the U.S. The skeptical BMW executives with their "technology-open approach" appeared to have been right.
Which makes it all the more surprising that the first "Neue Klasse" model "was developed from the very beginning purely for electric mobility," as BMW project leader Reichelt emphasizes. There will be no internal-combustion version. Why not? The electric motor is necessary for "full performance," says Reichelt. Which means that the innovative leaps made using computers and software cannot be implemented with an internal combustion engine.
Some ensuing "Neue Klasse" models will also have the option of an internal combustion engine, including the 3 Series, which will be released as the next model in early 2026. The company strategy, however, assumes that demand for electric engines will climb.
Reichelt refers to the need to increase the "consideration rate," the share of car buyers who are serious about potentially buying an e-auto. Plans call for half of all BMWs sold to be electric within just five years. The company sold 370,000 electric vehicles in 2024 - far more, ironically, than other premium carmakers that were so clear about their dedication to electric mobility.
"We know precisely why customers are not considering a purchase of an electric car, regardless of price," says Reichelt. "It is always the same concerns: range and recharging speed."
After a 70-kilometer drive through the hills of Provence in an iX3, the battery still holds 90 percent of its charge. Following another few laps, it's time for the car to be hooked up to the fast-charging station at the test track, with its 800 volts of direct current. Initially, the battery loads almost a kilometer of range per second. In just 10 minutes, 350 kilometers have been added.
Those who live in a rented apartment in the city without their own charging station are still not likely to be tempted, says Zipse, the BMW CEO. But everyone else "will have a hard time finding excuses to not switch to electric."
But there still is one additional concern. Price.
In the first half of the year, the global market for electric automobiles grew by almost 36 percent. The primary driver of this growth is China, which has become the largest automobile market in the world. Almost two-thirds of all electric vehicles sold in the first half of the year were sold there. "German carmakers are hardly profiting from this enormous dynamic," wrote the business consulting firm PwC in a recent study. The numbers are depressing: In the first half of the year, German producers sold a third fewer cars than in the same period the year before, despite the market's explosive growth.