Official release: The Group’s primary focus is on expanding electric mobility and automated driving. The BMW iNEXT will set new standards in both of these fields and will act as a technological spearhead. It will be manufactured at Plant Dingolfing from 2021, underlining the significance of Germany for future technologies and as a centre of competence for electric mobility. Germany will also serve as a key location for the development of autonomous driving. As part of the co-operation arrangements established with Intel and Mobileye, the first engineers from all three companies will move to the new development campus in Unterschleißheim near Munich in the course of the current year. Moreover, one year since the co-operation began, a number of other prestigious partners including Delphi and Continental have also joined the project.


“Huge changes lie ahead in the world of mobility and it is vital that our company is in top shape to tackle them. Strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT sharpens our innovative edge and strengthens our core business,” commented Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “We are advancing rapidly in the field of electric mobility, today and into the future. No established competitor has been able to put as many electrified vehicles onto the roads as we have. In the future, our flexible architecture will enable us to decide quickly which and how many models to build with combustion, plug-in hybrid or all-electric drive systems. This flexibility in our product range is our key to success in times of volatility and uncertain forecasts.”

The BMW Group’s broad range of electrified vehicles was particularly popular during the first six months of the current year. Deliveries of BMW i3 and i8 models, the BMW iPerformance plug-in hybrids and the new plug-in hybrid version of the MINI Countryman totalled 42,573 units, some 80% up on the previous year (2016: 23,681 units). “We remain firmly on track to deliver more than 100,000 electrified vehicles for the first time in a single year,” Krüger stated.

Since the market launch of the BMW i3 four years ago, the BMW Group is a pioneering force in the world of electric mobility and clearly remains on this course. Including the first MINI brand plug-in hybrid model, the BMW Group now offers nine electrified vehicles, with the new BMW i8 Roadster set to further increase that number in 2018. Shortly afterwards, all-electric, battery-powered e-mobility will become an integral part of the BMW Group’s core brands, starting with the production of an all-electric, battery-powered MINI at the Group’s plant in Oxford at the end of 2019 and followed by the all-electric, battery-powered BMW X3 in 2020.