BMW eyes 100,000 electric car sales in 2017: Sueddeutsche

MUNICH: BMW wants to boost sales of electric cars by two-thirds next year to 100,000 vehicles as the luxury automaker is offering more battery-powered models, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger.

Munich-based BMW expects to increase its deliveries of fully electric and hybrid vehicles to around 60,000 units this year, Krueger said in an interview published on Monday. Sales of battery-powered BMW models have totaled about 100,000 cars since 2013, he noted.

“Electric mobility will come, but demand is not going through the roof at the moment,” the newspaper quoted Krueger as saying.

To help improve sales, BMW is also increasing the battery range of its i3 city vehicle by 50 percent this year. The i3, BMW’s only fully battery-powered car, sold only 25,000 units last year.

The company, which has dropped behind Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz in global luxury-car sales rankings, wants to expand the share of electric cars and hybrid models to between 15 percent and 25 percent of sales by 2025, the newspaper reported.