INDUSTRY NEWS
BMW puts pedal to metal in pursuit of electric future
Michael Taylor reports on how BMW is planning to reinvent itself for the future
Bavarian car maker BMW has put the broom through its traditional car business to reinvent itself for an electric, autonomous future. The 100-year-old company confirmed it has accelerated the development of pure battery-electric and plug-in hybrid technologies, insisting it will have electrified versions of every model by 2020. A strategy document, Strategy Number One Next, reveals the brand will launch its first Level 4 autonomous car, the i-Next, as early as 2020, but is frantically retraining its core of mechanical engineers to turn them into electrical engineers. It has not ignored its traditional business, delivering plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid 5 Series early in 2017, a battery-electric (BEV) Mini by 2018, a BEV X3 with 500km of range in 2019 and the full-sized five-seat i-Next BEV in 2020. Flexibility While it has revealed its plans to build in the manufacturing flexibility to change direction on internal combustion, battery-electric and hybrid cars to meet a predicted ...
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