BMW to add Rolls-Royce Spectre, electric scooter to its China EV offering, as it doubles line-up in 2023

Name: BMW wows at world’s biggest tech show with ‘chameleon car’ in 32 shades
Uploaded: 2023-01-10T14:00:18.000Z
Duration: 2 min 10 s
Description: BMW wows at world’s biggest tech show with ‘chameleon car’ in 32 shades

The BMW iX1, the Rolls-Royce Spectre as well as the BMW Motorrad CE04 electric scooter are among models in the pipeline, Jochen Goller, CEO of BMW China, says

BMW’s aggressive expansion plan comes after a 91.6 per cent year-on-year jump in EV deliveries last year

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The Rolls-Royce Spectre. BMW China delivered 791,985 vehicles comprising petrol, pure electric and plug-in cars in 2022, down 4.8 per cent year on year. Photo: Facebook

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 10:00pm, 10 Jan 2023

German carmaker BMW plans to introduce another six pure electric vehicles (EVs) – more than doubling its existing portfolio of five models to 11 – in China in 2023, as it pushes for a leading position in the country’s premium EV segment.

The BMW iX1, the Rolls-Royce Spectre as well as the BMW Motorrad CE04 electric scooter are among models in the pipeline, Jochen Goller, CEO of BMW China, said on Tuesday.

“Stepped-up efforts by conventional carmakers such as BMW are set to make competition in China’s premium EV segment fiercer,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “It will take some time for BMW and other big carmaking giants to catch up with Tesla and its Chinese smart EV rivals.”

BMW’s aggressive expansion plan comes after a 91.6 per cent year-on-year jump in EV deliveries last year. It delivered 41,886 EVs in 2022. Its total, however, represents just 11 per cent of Tesla’s 390,000 EVs sold in mainland China between January and November last year.

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BMW wows at world’s biggest tech show with ‘chameleon car’ in 32 shades

Moreover, Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto, the three Chinese smart EV start-ups that are competing with Tesla in the world’s largest EV market, all reported at least 120,000 deliveries in 2022.

Most of BMW’s pure EVs sold in China are assembled elsewhere. The i3, an electric hatchback that can go as far as 536 kilometres in a single charge, however, is built at BMW’s venture with Brilliance China Automotive. Deliveries of the EV, which is priced at 349,900 yuan (US$51,672), began at the end of March last year and a total of 13,310 cars were sold in the whole year.