“BMW’s second attempt”

Carmaker BMW is “taking a deep breath” to prepare for the breakthrough of electric mobility, writes Markus Fasse in Handelsblatt. The company will have to work hard to ensure the 3 billion euros it so far has invested in e-cars don’t end up as sunk costs, Fasse writes. BMW introduced its “i3” and “i8” e-cars three years ago but 98 percent of the cars it sells still have combustion engines. That sends a signal to other companies that entering the market too soon can result in heavy losses, according to Fasse. However, the Bavarian carmaker is determined to expand the share of e-cars in its sales to 15 to 25 percent by 2025, Fasse writes. To achieve this, it is pursuing a parallel strategy with its DriveNow car-sharing-network, which is set to expand to many more cities in the coming years and buy up much of BMW’s electrified vehicle fleet.

Read the article in German here (behind paywall).

For background on the challenges for Germany’s mighty carmakers during energy transition, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.