Overall sales of BMW Group electrified vehicles increased by 1.4% compared with January last year, with a total of 7,234 delivered to customers around the world.
This increase was achieved despite limited availability of two key plug-in hybrid vehicles due to model changeovers – the introduction of the new BMW 330e and the new BMW X5 xDrive45e later this year is expected to support further sales growth of the company’s range of electrified vehicles.
The BMW i3 is the company’s best-selling electrified vehicle; the introduction late last year of an optional new, more powerful battery helped grow i3 sales in January to 2,598, 30.4% more than in the same month last year.
The BMW 530e was also a significant growth driver, with deliveries up 82.0% (1,722).
2019 will also see the launch of the MINI Electric – the fully-electric car will be introduced to the public later this year. It looks set to build on the success of the MINI Countryman Cooper S E plug-in hybrid which grew its sales by 25.7% in January (1,027) thereby accounting for 18.0% of MINI Countryman sales.
The BMW Group offer nine electrified vehicles in its portfolio including BMW 5 Series, the MINI Cooper S E Countryman plug-in hybrid, BMW i3, BMW i8, BMW 225xe iPerformance, BMW 330e iPerformance, BMW X5 40e iPerformance and BMW 740e/740Le iPerformance, plus the BMW X1 xDrive 25Le iPerformance sold exclusively in China.
This year will see the launch of several new plug-in hybrids, including the new generation BMW X5 plug-in hybrid and the new BMW 3 Series plug-in hybrid. These models will have the latest generation of electric drive trains, offering an electric range of up to 80 km according to the NEDC cycle. 2019 is also the year when the hotly anticipated MINI Electric will be revealed, which will be built in Oxford, UK.
By 2021, the BMW Group will have five all-electric models: the BMW i3, the MINI Electric, the BMW iX3, the BMW i4 and the BMW iNEXT.
In 2025, the BMW Group will have at least 25 electrified vehicles in its model line-up, 12 of which will be fully-electric vehicles.
