BMW will not mass produce electric cars until 2020 because its current technology is not profitable enough to scale up for volume production, the chief executive said.Munich-based BMW unveiled its first battery electric car in 2013, and has been working on different generations of battery, software and electric motor technology since then.<\/p>\n

The i8 Roadster model, due to hit showrooms , is equipped with what BMW calls its fourth-generation electric drive technology. Advances in battery raw materials and chemistry has increased its range by 40 percent over the previous version, BMW said.<\/p>\n

BMW is working to make electric car technology more modular and scalable to make mass production commercially viable.
\n\u201cWe wanted to wait for the fifth generation to be much more cost competitive,\u201d\u00a0Chief Executive Harald Krueger<\/strong>\u00a0told analysts in Munich.\u00a0\u201cWe do not want to scale up with the fourth generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost advantage between BMW\u2019s fourth and fifth generation electric vehicle technology was a\u00a0\u201ctwo digit number\u201d\u00a0in percent terms, Krueger said. He did not offer precise figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to win the race, you must be the most cost competitive in the segment, otherwise you cannot scale up the volume,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

BMW is working on a sixth generation of its technology and is investing a three-digit-million euro amount in battery cell research to better understand mass production, the association said.<\/p>\n

BMW makes electric cars at 10 plants across the world but has focused mainly on hybrids, which combine combustion engines with battery powered electric motors, rather than vehicles reliant solely on batteries for their power.
\nBMW said it wanted to add 25 new electrified models by 2025, of which 12 vehicles will be fully battery electric variants.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a new production method available from 2020 onwards, BMW will be able to make all its cars with pure electric, hybrid and combustion engined variants.<\/p>\n

In 2019 BMW will start making a fully electric Mini at its plant on the outskirts of the British city of Oxford, and will start production of a battery electric version of the X3 offroader in 2020.<\/p>\n

BMW is increasing the number of factories where it makes the X3 offroader. This year it will start making the X3 in China and South Africa, in addition to Spartanburg in the United States.<\/p>\n

BMW has chosen Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) as its partner in China for battery cell production, Krueger said.<\/p>\n

Full article\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0https:\/\/in.reuters.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BMW will not mass produce electric cars until 2020 because its current technology is not profitable enough to scale up for volume production, the chief executive said.Munich-based BMW unveiled its first battery electric car in 2013, and has been working on different generations of battery, software and electric motor technology since then. The i8 Roadster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15,10],"tags":[84],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n