Rendering of 2018 BMW X7
BMW Group has announced a product offensive that will include at least 40 new and revised models over the next two years across its BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce marques. The automaker laid out its goals while releasing its 2016 annual report. The two-year offensive began with the new 5-series, which was launched in February.
The company also said it will put particular emphasis on the top end of the premium segment, where it hopes to achieve significant growth by 2020 with new models, including the 2018 BMW X7. That emphasis appears to be at the expense of smaller cars. Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales and marketing, told Car and Driver at the Geneva auto show that the company could be culling the ranks of its two-door coupes and convertibles.
Meanwhile, the automaker’s electrification push continues. As we reported earlier, BMW plans to sell at least 100,000 electric vehicles in a single year for the first time in 2017, and it highlighted this expected milestone in its annual report. That comes after sales of its EVs almost doubled in 2016 to more than 62,000 units. By the middle of this year, BMW’s range of products will include eight plug-in hybrids, and sometime over the course of the year the company will deliver its 200,000th electric vehicle.
Within its various model ranges and brands, BMW said, flexible vehicle architectures will provide seamless integration of different drivetrain systems, as a new generation of electric modules and drivetrain systems will be entering series production.
“The all-electric Mini and BMW X3 will mark the beginning of the second wave of electrification for the BMW Group, benefiting from the ongoing technological progress we are making in this area,” BMW chairman Harald Krueger said in the report. Krueger added that using flexible architectures will allow BMW to avoid duplicate investments in plants and equipment and make the automaker more nimble in responding to changing demand.
BMW’s strategy was presented as it reported record revenues and earnings for a seventh straight year. Group revenues were up 2 percent, to about $102 billion. Its net profit rose 8 percent, to about $7.5 billion. Automotive sales were up 5 percent at 2,367,603 units. Deliveries to customers were up 5 percent, to 2,003,359 units.
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