BMW CEO still dragging his feet on BEVs.
Wants multipowertrain platforms instead of bespoke BEV platforms. Leading to inferior BEVs
Publicly advocating for ICE in Europe. Which leads me to believe the Quandt family supports this position.
The Tesla psychographic almost perfectly aligns with the BMW one. As Tesla grows their sedan/CUV sales ~50% per year they take disproportionately from BMW.
IF BMW still exist as a going concern in 2045 I see them reorganized, shrunken, and largely selling in Europe with State support.
I couldn’t disagree more.
First off legacy automakers are always slower to transition, some slower than others. Do you think Toyota, the slowest of them all, will be gone by 2045? Really? It always takes longer to turn a large ship. But in BMW’s case, this is a ship that knows how to make some of the best cars out there. That cautionary approach by the legacy automakers doesn’t imply they’ll be gone from the landscape because of it.
BMW has the iX as their second dedicated EV platform. The i4, which is getting a lot of notoriety, sits on a shared platform with the BMW 4 series Grand Coupe. Despite that, the i4 is already getting far better reviews that many EVs with bespoke platforms.
Granted, generally having an EV dedicated platform results in better interior space utilization, but it guarantees absolutely nothing about chassis dynamics or other areas of importance to EVs.
I am less concerned about shared vs non-shared platforms than how good the final product turns out to be. It doesn’t pay to be shortsighted about this.
The i4’s shared platform started with a vehicle that has already garnered praised for its chassis dynamics. So sharing a platform like that, refining the suspension to accommodate the greater weight and doing the other things necessary to create an excellent EV, is not a bad thing. One could argue it’s a smart thing as the transition process proceeds.
Honestly, I wish the Lucid had some of the features the i4 had and were executed with the same degree of car building experience. Of course I also wish the i4 had the range chops of the Lucid.
Pros & cons as is true with most things in life. Decisions are not always as clear cut as they seem to be.
