BMW

Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a commitment to convert the city’s vehicle fleet to electric vehicles. He announced that several of the city’s department will lease or acquire hundreds of all-electric (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) vehicles with a significant number going to the police department (LAPD).

Today we learn that BMW won its bid on an LAPD contract to supply 100 all-electric BMW i3 vehicles.
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In a not so surprising but disappointing report for EV enthusiasts today, we learn that BMW is putting its electric vehicle programs on the “back burner” in order to focus its ‘i’ brand, under which the German automaker has been releasing its electric vehicles, on self-driving cars instead.

The company reportedly will not release a new all-electric vehicle until 2021.
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This morning a reader brought to our attention that the Tesla.fr domain, which is not owned by Tesla but is a premium domain in France, was redirecting traffic to the BMW i3 page of the German automaker’s French website.
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In a surprising turn of event last month, several BMW executives in the automaker’s electric vehicle leadership, also known as the BMW ‘i’ brand, left the German automaker to join a newly formed Chinese EV startup, Future Mobility Corp, backed by Tencent Holdings.

Now Electrek has learned that two Tesla executive joined the BMW leadership at Future Mobility.
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It sounds like a car thief is moonlighting as a BMW marketing representative. An all-electric BMW i3 was recently stolen in Highgate, north London. As the thief was making his getaway, he called his buddy to invite him to his “proper flat”, where he keeps his “curved tele”, to take a look at his new car.

He didn’t realize that he was being recorded with a dashcam. The result is a pretty funny video and a happy ending.
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Several German automakers held their annual shareholders meeting this week and just like during Daimler’s last month, the subject of competing with Tesla in the luxury segment with long-range electric vehicle came up. German premium automakers like Audi, BMW and Porsche are admittedly about 6 years behind Tesla with the first few 200+ miles range electric vehicles coming to market starting in 2018 – versus Tesla’s Model S which launched in 2012.

BMW took the occasion to clearly lay out its electric vehicle plan under its ‘i’ sub-brand. The company confirmed that it will launch the new electric and autonomous iNext model in 2021. The vehicle is based on the recently unveiled ‘NEXT 100’ concept – picture above.
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Last week we reported on BMW advertising its new 2017 BMW i3 as having “50% more range” and now the automaker makes its updated all-electric vehicle official and confirms a 33 kWh battery pack – making it one of the biggest non-Tesla pack currently on the market.

The automaker is now referring to the i3’s new range as “up to 114-mile”, which is not exactly a 50% increase depending on the standard.
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It’s been long rumored that Apple has been in negotiations with BMW and Daimler for its electric car project, with Apple perhaps considering using parts from either of the carmakers. Now, German news outlet Handelsblatt reports that talks between Apple, Daimler, and BMW have ended, citing “industry sources.”

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Several executives in BMW’s electric vehicle leadership, including 20-year BMW veteran Carsten Breitfeld who reportedly developed the i8, left the German automaker to join a Chinese EV startup, according to a new WSJ report.

The startup in question is Future Mobility Corp, a newly formed EV company backed by Tencent Holdings.

Tencent is an important holding company in China with significant investments in several of the country’s biggest internet, video game and social media companies.
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BMW announced an updated version of its car-sharing program today. The new service called ‘ReachNow’ is officially launched in Seattle with an initial fleet of 370 vehicles,  including the electric BMW i3, the BMW 3 Series and the MINI Cooper. The German automaker confirmed that it has plans to launch the program in 10 cities, including 3 more by the end of the year. 
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At an annual BMW Group meeting earlier today, CEO Harald Krüger seemed to have completely recovered from his accident with the Model X Falcon Wing door earlier this month, and announced the automaker’s next step in electric mobility: Project i 2.0.

Krüger confirmed that the BMW i brand (i3 and i8) already sold more than 50,000 vehicles and now with “i 2.0”, the group plan to expand the market with a new i3, a convertible i8 and an electric Mini.
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The BMW Group celebrated its centenary by highlighting its vision of the future, which will be electric and autonomous although the company is more ambiguous about the former. To embody the vision, BMW unveiled a new concept vehicle called ‘NEXT 100’, but never directly mentioned its powertrain, though it did make several references to its electric ‘BMW i’ division and its “Born Electric” moto.

The concept is reminiscent of rival Mercedes’ own autonomous vision concept unveiled last year, which is just as futuristic looking although in the shape of a minivan…
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I’ve hoped to see an electric Mini make it to market ever since BMW produced a few hundreds all-electric “MINI E” cars to test its electric drivetrain technology for what eventually became its “i” electric brand, but the vehicle never made it to a wide release.

Now although not fully electric, we should “pretty soon” see the first electric vehicle from BMW’s popular Mini brand, according to a brand representative.
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The BMW i8 is arguably not a great electric vehicle since it’s quite frankly barely electric, but in my opinion it is a beautiful car and the German automaker often uses it to unveil new design features and to show case some interesting technology. Considering BMW is quite committed to all-electric vehicles with a new i3 battery pack coming and a rumored all-electric SUV, I like to keep up with what they are unveiling, and today we learn of a new special edition “Protonic Red” BMW i8 to be unveiled in Geneva.
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As part of its shareholder letter posted ahead of its earnings call today, Tesla demonstrated its catastrophic affect on the US luxury car market with a simple table. If you start at the bottom, the market is at about 100,000 cars a year and it’s basically unchanged from 2014 to 2015.

The market is for “large luxury” cars and includes not only the Model S but Audi’s A7 and A8, BMW’s 6 and 7 series, the Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS Mercedes CLS and S Class and the Porsche Panamera. Each of these models has fallen in sales from almost 5%-over 15% from 2014-2015.  Where did these sales go?
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A few months back, reports came out of BMW looking to introduce a new battery pack for the i3. The new pack was believed to enable up to 124 NEDC-rated miles of range on a single charge, which would represent a ~25% increase in range over the current battery pack offered by BMW.

Now we learn from a BMW official that the increase could be closer to 50%.
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After the mirrorless BMW i8, the German automaker unveiled an updated version of its i8 spyder at CES in Las Vegas, but the company has yet to offer any production timeline.
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Over a year after the first deliveries of the plug-in hybrid BMW i8, the open-top version is still not available even though the option was unveiled in 2012 – prior to the release of the production version.

But now BMW CEO Harald Krüger reiterated the company’s commitment to the feature and said the company is working on a production version.
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Some Tesla Model S owners who are used to high-end luxury cars have complained about the vehicle’ interior not being up to the standards of a $80,000+ car. Andrey, a Model S owner in Moscow, was tired of complaining and took action. He completely changed the interior of his Model S to a BMW 6-series’ for about $30,000.
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In a recent interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, BMW CEO Harald Krüger reiterated the company’s intention to phase out diesel models and introduce more electric vehicles in order to comply with increasingly strict emission regulations.

The CEO also commented on Tesla’s Autopilot, which he doesn’t see as the lead semi-autonomous option on the market at the moment. Of course, this comment shouldn’t come as a surprise since you rarely hear an executive admiting that a competitor’s technology is more advanced than his own company’s, but Krüger’s comments went beyond boasting BMW’s tech.
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