BMW Says Electric Car Mass Production Not Viable Until 2020 (reuters.com)

BMW will not mass produce electric cars until 2020 because its current technology is not profitable enough to scale up for volume production, the chief executive said on Thursday. From a report: Munich-based BMW unveiled its first battery electric car in 2013, and has been working on different generations of battery, software and electric motor technology since then. The i8 Roadster model, due to hit showrooms in May, is equipped with what BMW calls its fourth-generation electric drive technology. Advances in battery raw materials and chemistry has increased its range by 40 percent over the previous version, BMW said. BMW is working to make electric car technology more modular and scalable to make mass production commercially viable. "We wanted to wait for the fifth generation to be much more cost competitive," Chief Executive Harald Krueger told analysts in Munich. "We do not want to scale up with the fourth generation."

Comments

Re:2020

[tomhath]

I don't recall anyone saying "never". Most agreed that battery technology had a way to go though.

China already doing it

[WillAffleckUW]

Look, BMW just doesn't want to do this, because of profit factors, not because they are not capable of making a profit doing it.

They can convert easily. There are companies in Asia that produce far more all electric vehicles than BMW does, and they converted much more quickly and scaled up.

Re:Engine bay

[Anonymous Coward]

You are missing the weight component. The reason Tesla's handle so well is that the battery is basically the width and length of the car allowing for an equal weight distribution. If you put it all in the engine compartment, you are adding a LOT of weight and the car would probably have 70% of it's weight in that area.

Did I miss something?

[rsilvergun]

Is it 1980? Because if not 2020 is 2 years away. That's not even a blip in an industry as large as cars. The headline shouldn't be "not viable until 2020" it should be "will be viable by 2020".