German automaker BMW said Wednesday it intends to speed the rollout of new electric cars, vowing to bring battery-powered models to 50 percent of global sales by 2030. The company underlined the point by unveiling a new all-electric model three months ahead of plan.
BMW expects at least half of its sales to be zero emission vehicles by 2030, setting a more conservative target than some rivals in the race to embrace cleaner driving.
In the short term, the German carmaker forecast on Wednesday
a big rise in pretax profit for this year, with a strong performance in all
areas - from MINIS through its upmarket BMW brand to top-of-the-range
Rolls-Royces.
Its shares rose as much as 4.9% to a 2-1/2 year high of
84.42 euros, buoyed by its forecast for a strong recovery from a pandemic-hit
2020.
Bernstein analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said BMW had entered
2021 "very confidently."
"In terms of electromobility, BMW is making good
progress and is taking significantly fewer risks than VW," he said.
Volkswagen has said it expects 70% of European sales at its
core VW brand to be electric by 2030 and this week unveiled ambitious plans to
expand in electric driving - including building half a dozen battery cell
plants in Europe - sending its shares sharply higher.
BMW said around 90% of its market categories would have
fully-electric models available by 2023 and the electric BMW i4 would be
launched three months ahead of schedule this year.
The carmaker said its MINI brand would be fully electric
"by the early 2030s" and electric models would account for at least
50% of group deliveries by 2030.
When asked if BMW could set a date for ending sales of
internal combustion engines, as some rivals have, Chief Technology Officer
Frank Weber said: "it's not us who decides on the end of the internal
combustion engine, but it's the markets."
In an industry chasing electric carmaker Tesla and facing
tightening CO2 emissions standards in Europe and China, some automakers have
promised a faster shift in technology, despite the huge costs and manufacturing
changes involved.
Sweden's Volvo said this month its lineup would be fully
electric by 2030, and Ford said in February its lineup in Europe would be too.
Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars in the European
Union almost trebled to over 1 million vehicles in 2020 and accounted for more
than 10% of overall sales, taking zero-emission models from niche products into
the mainstream.
Chief Executive Oliver Zipse told a news conference that BMW
could accelerate its plans if consumers embraced electric models more quickly
than expected.
"Should demand in certain markets shift completely to
fully electric vehicles in the coming years - we can deliver," he said.
Last week, BMW said 2021 had started well after its profit
recovered in the second half of 2020 from pandemic shutdowns, thanks largely to
strong sales in China.
For this year, it expects an operating profit (EBIT) margin
of 6%-8% after 2.7% in 2020.
Volkswagen said this week its 2021 operating margin should
be at the upper end of its 5%-6.5% target range, with a goal of 7%-8% by 2025.
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