The automotive industry was hit rather hard in 2020, with a lot of experts being concerned about the long-term impact of the Coronavirus lockdown. As numbers from accountants are coming in, we can now take a closer look at the sales results from last year. BMW, for example, managed to keep its sales drop in check and certain segments went up – like electrified cars.
According to BMW, in 2020, the group sold a total of 192,646 electrified BMW and MINI models worldwide, an increase of 31.8 percent compared to 2019. This certainly points to a switch in demand, from diesels to PHEVs and mild-hybrids. Sales of fully-electric cars also went up by 13 percent, while plug-in hybrids accounted for an increase of about 40 percent.
To get a better idea of how big this shift is, 15 percent of all cars sold in Europe by BMW last year were electrified. The MINI brand and its electric model were particularly popular, with 17,580 units sold in 2020. The only other fully electric car on sale last year from BMW was the i3 and it did rather well as well. The fourth quarter of 2020 proved to be surprising too when it came down to electrified cars, the BMW group delivering 76,246 units in total, an increase of 55% compared to Q4 of 2019.
The BMW Group has now increased the number of electrified vehicles (pure electric and plug-in hybrid) in its line-up to 13 models, which are available in 74 markets around the globe. By 2023, the BMW Group plans to almost double its line-up to 25 electrified vehicles, of which more than half will be fully electric. The introduction of the pure-electric MINI and BMW iX3 last year will be followed in 2021 by the start of production for the fully electric BMW iX in Dingolfing and the BMW i4 in Munich.
