BMW electric car sales hit 0.10m target

BMW said on Monday it had hit its target of selling 0.10 million (100,000) electric cars this year around the world, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models such as the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer.

This is more than 60 per cent up from the 62,255 electric cars BMW sold last year. The German luxury carmaker has said it expects 2018 electric-vehicle (EV) sales to grow by a medium two-digit percentages, reports Reuters.

A pioneer in electric cars, BMW launched the i3 hatchback in 2013 but sales have been relatively low and management has wrestled with whether to go all-out for electrification.

But that changed in September when the Munich-based group said it would gear up for mass production of electric cars and aimed to have 12 fully electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 kilometres.

“Electric mobility is the indicator where I measure our success,” Chief Executive Harald Krueger said.

Earlier on Monday, US EV battery company Solid Power said it had partnered with BMW to develop the next-generation solid-state battery technology for use in electric cars.