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Phoenix666 writes:

Professor Stefan Bratzel of the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany doesn't think BMW is close to maximizing its growth yet, and will concentrate on electric and autonomous cars to expand the business.

"BMW may be pretty close to capacity, but of course the company is thinking about growing further otherwise they will get into trouble from competitors. I think the new CEO Harald Krueger sees two big pillars of growth; electro-mobility and autonomous driving. The electric car will get more interesting for BMW and it is hoping the German government and others will push this issue further (with subsidies)," Bratzel said.

Car magazines have been full of teaser pictures recently of the BMW i5, an all-electric SUV to match the Tesla Model X. BMW has yet to confirm the vehicle, which would be the third product for the "i" brand after the i3 electric city car, and the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. There is speculation too that BMW will expand its "M" sub-brand of hotted up vehicles.

"The second pillar of growth for BMW will be autonomous driving and this should bring more qualitative growth," Bratzel said.

Bratzel predicted electric car sales will start to accelerate between 2017 and 2018 with global sales reaching perhaps to three per cent by 2020.

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