In an interview with AutoGazette, BMW’s Chief Development Officer Klaus Fröhlich commented on the electric cars of competitors, such as Mercedes and Audi. In a long and interesting interview, Fröhlich goes into detail about BMW’s approach to electromobility compared to the industry. For example, the R&D Chief says that BMW were pioneers with the i3 and i8 which has helped the company create a competence program for lightweight technologies such as CFRP, e-motors and power electronics as well as battery technology.
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“We wanted to learn,” Fröhlich said. “The lessons learned will be seen in the next generation of electric cars that we mass-produce.”
“With the BMW i3 we were pioneers and with the i8 we have shown that electrified vehicles can also be emotional,” added the BMW board member. “And this year we will sell around 140,000 electrified vehicles. Thanks to our architecture, we are able to electrify any vehicle, provided the customer demand is there. With the advancement of the architectures, we can offer each model also battery electric, if the markets demand it. So we are able to industrialize and scale. We do not need showcase vehicles.”
Furthermore, Fröhlich sees the upcoming competitor’s electric vehicles as “nothing other than pilots”, project for collecting first-hand knowledge.
Without calling Mercedes EQC and Audi e-tron by name, he puts the two electric SUVs of German premium competition on a completely different level than the BMW iX3. Just like the 2019 MINI E, the iX3 from 2020 and the i4 will also use the fourth generation of BMW electric drives. From 2021 onwards, the fifth generation of the BMW drivetrain architecture will be seen in the iNext vehicle which will be one of the two architectures within BMW Group and the future for the company, both in conventionally-powered vehicles and in electric cars.
For the next two years, Fröhlich expects further allegations that the BMW Group has overslept on the topic of electromobility.
“But then you’ll see that we can build e-cars profitably in mass production and others just do not,” Fröhlich added. “With the competitors’ first electric cars, they only practice “what we practiced four or five years ago. The only difference is that they use bigger batteries than we did back then. ”
For the future, Fröhlich announces that it will offer all BMW and MINI electric cars with at least two different sized storage units. Just like classic cars with combustion engines, the customer can then decide which level of performance and range he actually needs and wants to pay for.
As we said, the interview is quite extensive and full of interesting quotes, so feel free to click here for the Google Translated version.
I like that BMW is leading the segment at the moment with the technology amongst the big 3 Germans, however if I had to choose between these three cars. I would choose the Audi e-tron, because I like the fact that it looks like a regular car.
iX3 doesn’t?
Fröhlich might be right or he might be underestimating what others already know about building electric cars. Guess we’ll have to see how well the other German carmakers do with their “first electric cars”. They might not make their cars out of CFRP but what really matters is sales numbers these days.
Yes, since others were so leading edge on diesel.
Losing their control of the CFRP process when they were so far ahead of everyone else will bite them in the near future.
Why? It’s still available to them & I thought no volume manufacturer was pursuing CFRP due to cost?
“The only difference is that they use more memory than we did back then”
More memory? What was that supposed to mean?
It would guess it’s a typo in the translation.
More “money” would make more sense in that context…
Wrong translation !!!
Should be “bigger batteries“ instead of “more memory“.
Thanks for the help.
I think he means Merc and Audi cars are having a longer range that what Bmw used 4 years ago.
Every decision, whether strategic or tactical harks back to the very tenet that the Quandt family has set for Harald and BMW AG’s Board of Directors – Profitability. Today’s BMW (the entity) is not about cars, mobility or even technology. It is, above all else, about annual dividends per share.
Building the iX3 could have been achieved back in 2014-2015. The formula was always there. However, there was a strategic risk that electrifying the brand’s most “profitable” offerings (i.e. SAVs) would cannibalize the regular production series and impact the bottom line. Again, profitability translates to dividends as BMW translates to Quandt.
The family who saved the company from being plowed under to build Mercedes trucks? Yes, because other manufacturers are run as charities, profitability BAD! A previous gen. X3 BEV was NOT possible 4 yrs. ago (any more than Tesla had their 1st volume model ready to go then) & a company that built a new stand alone CFRP factory a continent away to produce limited volume clean sheet new BEV & hybrid (preceded by 2 fleets of BEV test fleets) is not motivated solely by bottom line, i3, i8 & Washington state CFRP would never have existed. Dealers have been crying for more crossovers (thus X1, X2, X7, possibly X8), of course they’d have brought BEV to market if possible, they already were selling hybrid. Your final sentence is also contradicted by the 2 earning warnings issued (thus far) against R&D investments for new mobility, tech. & factories to produce volume BEV. Profitability actually=prosperity, expansion, independence. The billions spent on contracted battery production & increased share of China production also counter your profit>all thesis. Most i3 buyers are new to the brand, BEV expand volume, not “cannibalize” it.
The Quandt family saved their own investment guided and executed purely out of business interests, not to save the philosophical “spirit” of the brand as we enthusiasts would like to believe.
It is blatantly clear that these same profitability interests will hamstring innovation if priority is placed on profit margins above all else. You can fanboy all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that in 2014 BMW i Division TARGETED the Prius design when they approved the initial i3 BEV. It wasn’t the BEV 1 series like the initial test fleets. And it CERTAINLY wasn’t the X3. Why?
Investment into R&D and development doesn’t necessarily translate to innovation. Moses Lake was a strategic direction that BMW placed its bet on because they lacked the energy storage technological basis to guide their investment into battery technology (Germans vehemently insisted that consumer range anxiety was illogical thus they should just get over it). Notice they’ve backed away from mass producing vehicles with a full CFRP structure, again why? It’s not profitable and the Model S, X, 3 has demonstrated that mass market consumers don’t care about weight and driving dynamics, they care about 250 miles on a full charge and 0-60mph stoplight grand prix “performance”.
The Board at BMW AG has since backtracked on so many fronts. Much of it steered by realization that their initial strategies were off-target and the Teslas of the world are a bonafide threat the likes they’ve never imagined, even in their worst nightmares. Despite how many times Klaus Froelich argues against autonomy and electrification, look at what the iNext is doing. There’s nothing innovative because all that matters at the end of the day is profitability. Do not blaze new trails, do not mind the faithful, invest in manufacturing electric drivetrains because that’s where the market is going. Only do it profitably.
Just to recap, BMW is no longer the specialized boutique Ultimate Driving Machine company we’ve known and endeared. In this quest for mass market revenue and profitability, it has forsaken its roots to sell the Ultimate Profit Machine. No matter what the cost, even if it means shelving the soul of the Roundel. Unfortunately, it seems even the most steadfast are losing sight of the origins of their brand, even Porsche. It just shows the impact Silicon Valley and China has on shaping the future of mobility.
1. “Ultimate Driving Machine” is an ad. slogan from America in the ’70’s.
2. “Boutiques” get swallowed up by corporations.
3. The company you criticise is smarter than you.
4. Not hard to do.
5. Ruhlly.
6. Why r u so biased?
7. Rhetorical question
8. fanboy?
9. KMA
That single frame grille reminds me a little bit of Kia Tucson, which I find is a very good looking suv.
all i can say is. tesla will be screwed. they’ve done their part, now leave it to the europeans.
I have owned 3 BMW i3’s and the current i3S is great…but nothing compares to my TSLA Mod X and the folks who support them….it will be a LONG time before BMW becomes a serious EV player…their dealership network will not let them.
BMW’s biggest EV investment is in China, where BEV is mandated & independent of dealers. Most i3 buyers are new to the brand, more BEV will increase traffic & sales for dealers, it’s not an either/or situation.