German car maker BMW appear to be throwing in the towel. At least this is what their Director of Development Klaus Fröhlich seems to be implying. The Mini E has emerged, and it isn't exactly raising any eyebrows of excitement. Bearing old i3 technology doesn't help. It seems that BMW just cannot compete with Nissan or Renault or PSA, but primarily Tesla, where the Model 3 is currently outselling the BMW i3 by 3:1 in Germany, despite only being introduced in February and having to be shipped from Tesla's only M3 production facility [as yet] and it's only 3:1 in Germany. Elsewhere the ratio is way higher. Klaus says there is simply no demand for EVs. The truth is there is no demand for BMW EVs. The little i3 was/is a nice concept, and is well made, as usual from BMW. However, it was the product of a company which hedged its bets on electrification. And one other thing. It's pig ugly. If you want to sell in big numbers, and not be a niche car, which only tree hugging Beemer enthusiasts would entertain, then you have to make something that everyone finds acceptable to look at, at the very least. People may put up with mediocre specs, in that case. And boy has the i3 succeeded at being niche. Some auto pundits have called it 'sales proof' worldwide. And that's in a bad way.
So is the BMW head really out of touch? It appears so. Last week he was moaning that BMW EVs will never be able to compete with their FFVs. Never is a bloody long time. Klaus plans to keep making diesel engined cars for 20 years and petrol engines for the next 30, when his own country is going to ban them well within that time, and cities won't let them enter well before then either. Last October he said, “When everybody wants to have cobalt [for batteries], the prices of cobalt will not go down, they will go up.” He seems not to realise that Cobalt is disappearing from new lithium-Ion battery design. And you can reuse it again and again anyway. Significantly, in a little, as yet, understood phenomenon, all reusable battery materials perform better than when they were totally new [please don't ask, I'm still trying to find out about that one]. So Fröhlich appears to have been living under a rock for the last decade at least. Maybe he's a fossil, just like the fuels his cars use.
Auto pundits have been commenting on the prospects of traditional car-makers as they stumble forward trying to keep an outdated industry propped up, or at least managing their decline. And there are genuine fears voiced for Ford and Fiat-Chrysler Auto [FCA], along with several of the minnows like Mazda, Subaru, etc. Either they merge or make an overnight change, in manufacturing life cycle terms, or they go out of business. Jaguar have opted for the middle strategy of change. Tata, which owns Jaguar, aims to make the marque an wholly electric brand. And they've started well with the iPace. If BMW don't drastically shift their direction we could be adding them to the growing list of potential bankrupts.
And battery prices are still dropping faster than ever, despite the growing demand.