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BMW is putting some big numbers to its electrification efforts. At a media event in Munich on Thursday ahead of next week's Frankfurt Motor Show, the automaker announced plans to bring to market at least 25 electrified vehicles by 2025 -- 13 of which will be fully electric. The new models are expected to be marketed through all of BMW AG's brands, including Mini and Rolls-Royce, but may also include BMW Motorrad, its motorbike division.
Most interestingly, Harald Krüger, BMW chairman of the board, revealed Tuesday that his company will show a four-door, pure-electric concept car in Frankfurt under its i sub-brand. The car will be designed to slot between its i3 electric urban runabout and i8 plug-in hybrid sports coupe. Few concrete details were revealed about the coming show car, but reading between the lines, it's clear that BMW is incubating a Tesla competitor -- likely a rival for the Model 3. The car's design is expected to be influenced by the Vision Next 100 (shown below), a futurethink concept vehicle designed to commemorate BMW's centennial.
Word from inside the executive circles at Ford is that they're gearing up to chase Tesla, too. How long before the last internal combustion engine production car rolls off the line, 5 years, 10 years, or 15?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday September 10 2017, @08:46AM
Money.
If they don't open up their charging network, there's the danger that sooner or later a different standard will emerge (either through agreements between traditional car makers — if Tesla remains dominant enough to be able to afford not opening up their supercharger network, the other companies will have a big incentive to work together to break Tesla's dominance), or through government regulation (I don't expect that in the US, but in the EU I consider that a not too unlikely possibility). There might also be government programs to subsidize building charger networks. Once the dominant form of charger is not Tesla's, the Supercharger network will turn from an asset to a hindrance, as people will prefer to buy the cars with the most charging stations available.
If Tesla opens up the Supercharger network to other companies, it makes it quite likely that this is the future charging standard. And Tesla has already a head start on it, so it will likely become a dominant player in the charging station market. Indeed, it might be possible that one day their charging revenue surpasses their car selling revenue.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.