BMW is celebrating the delivery of its one-millionth electrified vehicle, marking an important milestone in the company’s aspirations to ship two million battery electric and hybrid units in the space of two years.
The milestone was hit after BMW board member, Pieter Nota, handed over the keys to a BMW iX xDrive40 to a lucky customer in Welt, Germany, who also received a complementary wallbox installed at their house.
In recent years, BMW has moved aggressively into the world of plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles, with the company hoping to double its BEV sales tally next year while aiming to hit two million deliveries of fully-electric vehicles by 2025.
Buoyed by the success of its recently-introduced iX and i4, BMW is planning to expand its fully-electric portfolio with additions of battery-electric variants of the 7 Series (i7) and X1 next year, as well as the release of the MINI Countryman EV, all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre and the addition of a battery-electric 5 Series sedan in 2023.
BMW says that by 2023, it will have at least one fully-electric model on the road in 90 per cent of its current markets, and over the next decade, forecasts the production of ten million fully-electric vehicles. By this time, the entire MINI range will be all-electric, as well as the entirety of the Rolls-Royce lineup. BMW’s Pieter Nota said:
“The delivery of our one-millionth electrified vehicle marks a milestone in our transformation – and we already have the next one in our sights: we aim to break through the two-million mark in just two years. By 2025, the BMW Group will have delivered around two million fully-electric vehicles to customers. We expect at least one out of every two BMW Group vehicles sold to be fully electric by 2030.”
The last we heard, the iX is/was scheduled to arrive in Australia during the fourth quarter of this year, with the iX3 coming in November and the i4 arriving in the first quarter of 2022. There could be some delays due to the COVID pandemic and subsequent chip shortages.
