BMW BEV/PHEV sales and battery plans...BMW statements

[jbcarioca]

There are a few threads here suggesting only Tesla is making major investments. That is not true.
BMW has been making huge investments, most obviously perhaps in lightweight materials like carbon fibre but also in battery pack fabrication at Dingolfing, charging systems and other areas.

Here I have quoted only their actual April 2016 sales and their battery production MOU with Samsung

"...April saw growing demand for the BMW Group’s increasing number of innovative vehicles with electric drive – a total of 4,504 pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold around the world in the month. The top three markets for these vehicles were the USA, Scandinavia and the UK. Sales of the all-electric BMW i3 increased 50.7% compared with the same month last year (1,854), with overall sales for BMW i up 29.4% on the month (2,181). Six months after market launch of the BMW X5 xDrive 40e plug-in hybrid, nearly 10% of all BMW X5s sold in April were the electrified version, with a total of 1,196 delivered to customers worldwide in the month..." That adds up to more than 14% of BMW sales!

BMW Group global sales continue to grow

"...Complete high-voltage batteries for the BMW i3, BMW i8 and other future hybrid vehicles are built on an ultra-modern assembly line at BMW Plant Dingolfing. The only supplied parts are the cells – otherwise the high-voltage batteries are developed and produced completely in-house, building on experience with earlier batteries developed in-house for models, such as the BMW ActiveHybrid 3 and 5 and the BMW ActiveE, with further optimisation..."
BMW Group and Samsung SDI expand partnership

 

[deonb]

And yet, BMW is abandoning their 5-series EV plans because of lackluster sales of the i3.

Instead they're shifting focus to autopilot:
BMW Is Rethinking Its "i" Division - Gas 2

 

[Alfred]

More details on BMW disappointed with i3 sales and shifting focus away from purely electric vehicles and concentrating on autonomous driving (in German, sorry):
BMW richtet Elektroauto-Sparte neu aus.

 

[RobStark]

In 2015 Tesla delivered 50,366 Model S

In 2015 BMW sold 24,083 i3. At less than half the Average Selling Price with a far far larger distribution network in many more countries.

EV Sales: World Top 20 December 2015 Special Edition (Updated)

 

[Cosmacelf]

Hmmm, almost sounds like BMW is believing the hype that autonomous car sharing businesses will eat away at new car sales. They are shifting focus away from electric cars to autonomous cars. Not a bad idea to focus on autonomous vehicles, but curtailing electric development due to disappointing sales of a single funky car, well...

 

[Just a Reader]

BMW wins bid to supply LAPD with 100 electric cop cars

 

[GSP]

I find BMW's statement extremely hard to believe:

"The only supplied parts are the cells – otherwise the high-voltage batteries are developed and produced completely in-house"

So BMW is now in the business of making contactors (high voltage relays), pre-charge resistors, current sensors, temperature sensors, battery management computers, cables, connectors, etc, etc? I highly doubt it.

Probably a translation to English issue. What they likely meant is they design and build the pack, not that they produce all of its components except for the cells.

GSP