After three years since its market launch in November 2013, BMW’s i brand recorded a global sale of 1,00,000 units of electric and hybrid cars. Including the all-electric vehicles, the i3 and i8, and the electric hybrids that come under the name of iPerformance.
Leading upfront is the five-door urban electric hatch, the i3, with a standalone sale of more than 60,000 units whereas the i8 found 10,000 takers since the middle of 2014. The rest of the cars to contribute approximately 30,000 plug-in hybrids are under the
The Bavarian manufacturer recently introduced a plug-in hybrid Mini Countryman which will arrive sometime next year. In addition, has a confirmed plan to introduce i8 Roadster in 2018, before launching a fully electric Mini in 2019 and a purely electric-powered BMW X3 in 2020. At the start of the next decade, BMW plans to introduce another, larger BMW i model with an electric drive and autonomous driving called the BMW iNEXT.
Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Harald Krüger, said, “BMW i remains our spearhead in terms of innovation and it will continue to open up groundbreaking technologies for the BMW Group. When it comes to electric drivetrains, we’ve already successfully managed to put this technology transfer on the road. The next technological advance we will address is automated driving, where the BMW iNEXT will set a new benchmark.”