BMW says the days of Tesla's dominance of the electric car market are over A senior company executive issues a warning to Elon Musk's company.
By Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki Edited by Eduardo Scheffler Zawadzki
This article was translated from our Spanish edition.
BMW says the days of Tesla's dominance in the electric market are over
A senior company executive issues a warning to Elon Musk's company.
This is not the first time that BMW has attacked Tesla . It has happened on several occasions and even Oliver Zipse , CEO of the German automaker, has publicly stated that he does not consider Elon Musk's company a premium brand. Now it is the turn of Pieter Nota , BMW sales manager, who has made a statement that has attracted attention. In an interview with the specialized media Auto News , the senior executive stated: "We will focus on a strong and rapid increase in electric vehicles… Tesla had a unique selling point for quite some time. That ended".
What sounds like a declaration of war is justified in an aggressive strategy to conquer the electric vehicle market, spearheaded by the BMW i4 . The German automaker estimates to sell 200,000 units of its various electric models this year, and although the figure is still far from the 900,000 units that Tesla sold in 2021, Nota's statements show where the company's emphasis is placed.
The German automaker today offers three different electric models: the BMW i4, a front competitor to the Tesla Model 3; the BMW iX3 that stands up to the Tesla Model Y; and the BMW iX that goes against the Tesla Model X. The launch of the BMW i5 , in the same segment as the Tesla Model S, is planned for 2023.
In the interview, Nota added: "The i4 is the electric car that customers have come to expect from BMW. It is the ultimate electric driving machine. Dealerships have hundreds of orders." Oliver Zipse complemented these statements: "In Europe you have a growing electric vehicle market for all brands. In the United States there is only one super successful brand. We will take the company to the limit of its production capacity."
BMW expects that by the end of this decade half of its sales will be from 100% electric vehicles . According to the company's official website: "By 2025, the share of electric cars in total Group deliveries is expected to rise to at least 30%. By 2030, at least half of the BMW Group's vehicle deliveries worldwide will be fully electric models. In addition, we intend to put some 10 million fully electric vehicles on the road over the next 10 years."
How big is Tesla?
The statements are not enough to unseat Tesla, the current leader in the electric vehicle market. According to a report by Statista , it was named the most valuable automotive brand of 2021 and was the fastest growing in the world. In June 2021, Model 3 became the first electric vehicle to exceed sales of more than one million units.
In 2021, the brand invoiced more than $53 billion dollars, which is equivalent to a growth of more than 70%. With the recent opening of a new plant in Berlin , the company estimates to increase its annual production by 500,000 units per year.
Words are not enough. Whoever wants to hit Tesla will have to do things right and work very hard.
