BMW EV sales target 25 percent market share by 2025
Ankit Sharma : BMW’s sales have been the best ever in 2023. What is your strategy to break these numbers in 2024?
Vikram Pawah : We are confident about the acceptance and demand of the new products we have launched in 2023. The supply of these products was limited in 2023. In such a situation, when the products will be supplied on a full scale throughout the year 2024, we hope to see good growth. Apart from this, we will launch 19 new products in 2024. These include 13 cars and 6 two-wheelers. The arrival of these new products in the market will also increase the demand. It is expected that the positive sentiment in the industry will remain intact. Consumer confidence is also looking good this year. If we look at all these things, then it is expected that in 2024 we will perform better than in 2023.
: India is rapidly moving towards green energy. The industry is also getting support from the government. What has been BMW’s EV sales in India so far? What are the company’s plans and targets for the EV segment?
Vikram Pawah : BMW has been working on electric cars for the last 10 years. The company launched its first electric car BMW i3 in 2013. This shows that we were already serious about electric cars. In 2023, BMW sold a total of 14,172 cars, of which electric cars accounted for 10 percent. We sold 1,474 electric cars in 2023, which is 325 percent more than in 2022. In 2023, BMW iX was our top selling luxury electric vehicle. By 2025, our target is to increase the share of EV sales in overall sales to 25 percent. We will launch 2 new electric cars in 2024.
: Until a year ago, the initial range of electric cars was 300 to 400 kilometers, however now it has increased to an average of 600 kilometers, which BMW has also achieved. A Chinese company has claimed to achieve a range of 1 thousand kilometers. Is BMW also working to achieve such a range?
Vikram Pawah : The range of all our EV vehicles is quite regional, falling between 300 and 600 km. However, I would like to tell EV buyers that range is just a number. The bigger question is customer usage. We design cars for our customers keeping in mind their usage. If most users travel only 40 to 50 km daily, then there is no benefit of additional range for them.
If I give you an example, our Mini customers who do not even drive the car daily, on an average these customers drive their car once or twice a week. For these customers, a range of 280 to 300 km is also enough.
A range of 1000 km may be appropriate for Europe and other countries where people’s daily travel is between 90 and 100 km. In India, most people travel between 40 and 50 km. Our BMW customers also follow the same trend. If we talk about our battery technology in electric mobility, we are already on the 5th generation and working on the 6th generation. We are already operating at an advanced level.
: Do you think people in India are avoiding buying EVs due to range and charging infrastructure. What advice would you give to EV buyers?
Vikram Pawah: Electric mobility does not work on just one dimension range. Apart from this, efficiency is also a factor that works, like how quickly the battery gets charged? Along with the charging speed, the efficiency of the battery, the life of the battery are many such elements which are very important along with the range. We offer a car to our customers by making a package of all these things. For example, we assure our customers that the battery of the car will work at 100 percent performance level for 7 years.
As far as charging is concerned, we provide our BMW customers with free AC charging stations, which they can get installed in their parking space. In such a situation, our customers will not need any external charging station. However, if BMW buyers travel inter-city or long distances, they can use our 56 fast charging stations in 33 cities.
We also provide information about charging stations to our customers through the website and app, so that they can plan their route. However, I would advise EV buyers to buy an EV car considering their usage pattern and not the range of the car. Just like we choose the engine power of the car according to our usage, EV buyers should choose the range according to their usage. If there is a charging station at every petrol pump in India, then definitely the sale of EVs will increase.
Ankit Sharma : BMW India is facing tough competition from Mercedes-Benz and Audi in India. Now there are reports that Tesla may also enter India. How will you be able to maintain market share?
Vikram Pawah : Tesla has a worldwide presence, we also have our presence on a global scale. The arrival of new companies in the market is beneficial. This not only increases competition in the market, but also increases demand. We have been in India for 16 years. We welcome Tesla wholeheartedly. India is one of the important markets for BMW and we are committed to giving our best technology cars to Indians.
