BMW said on Monday it will release electrified version of a number of its existing vehicles, along with some new models, in an effort to overhaul its lineup toward electrification.
Starting in 2021, the German automaker said it plans to have have 5 fully electric vehicles (EVs) on the road, including the BMW i3, Mini Cooper SE, BMW iX3, BMW iNEXT, and BMW i4.
Further plans call for a total of 25 electrified models by 2023, with at least half being fully electric, with the other half being hybrids.
The company’s long term goal is to have more than 7 million electrified BMW Group vehicles on the roads, around 2/3 of them fully electric, by 2030.
Of those electric models, the automaker confirmed one of them will be BMW’s flagship 5-Series sedan. Based on earlier rumours, it could also include a beefed up electric version of the popular M5.
Drive Tesla has previously reported that the automaker was developing an electric M5 with a 1,006 horsepower tri-motor design and a 135kWh battery pack. Put it all together, and the electric sedan could have a range of 700km (435 miles), and reach 60mph in 2.9 seconds.
On the one hand it is encouraging to see another legacy automaker commit to going electric.
On the other, it’s nothing new to hear these kinds of promises from legacy automakers, only to see them miss target after target, and ultimately deliver sub-par EVs that very few people want to buy.
Hopefully BMW is able to get it right and come out with compelling EVs, helping to push the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
h/t [Reuters]
