BMW Concedes Electric Market; Will Re-Focus "i" Brand on Autonomy

[Mike K]

BMW refocuses i brand on driverless cars instead of EVs, report says

This is kind of an old story so I'm not going to post it in Auto news but I didn't see it mentioned here. BMW has basically said fuck it to the electric market. The i3 didn't catch on for a litany of reasons, the i8 isn't all electric and Tesla appears to be eating everyone's lunch with the yet to be released Model 3.

So they scrapped plans of a Model S competitor and instead have decided to re-focus on autonomy. Here's the rub: the first car isn't due out for 5 years at which point basically everyone else will have surpassed them.

It's no surprise. The i3 is a nice car for those that can live with it but while it's cute, it's no looker. Timing for it was really poor too as BMW advertised the i cars for years before they were made only to have the Model S come out a year before they were released, essentially making them look obsolete and underpowered right out of the box.

This is an odd turning point though. For one, the industry (and BMW's German competitors) is embracing electric in full force now. BMW seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis here. Some of their recent offerings are puzzling.

The new 7 series for instance, I see none of them out here. The moment the 2014 S550 was released they were everywhere. The 2016 7 series has been out for what? 7 months now? I see maybe one a week. And sure enough, I looked up the sales numbers and year to date BMW has only seen a 7.3% increase in sales numbers on the 7 series. That seems pretty abysmal. Even as a BMW fan, I look at the 7 series and it's just meh. It's not offensive or bad looking but it lacks the understated classy-ness of the A8 and the ostentatiousness of the S550.

Elegance:

Look at me! I make more money than you! Check out my vanity plate as I cut you off!:

And I just nodded off:

It would seem BMW's sustained success relies heavily on a re-designed 3 series and the re-designed 5. The current 5 series is a hugely popular car out here and I think the pressure to get that right after a pretty boring 7 Series is going to be looming large on designers.

If these pictures are to be believed, I'm not so sure I'm sold:

For my money, there's not many better looking sedans on the road than a current generation M-Sport 5 series with LED headlights:

Click to read more...

 

[bimmer4life]

BMW refocuses i brand on driverless cars instead of EVs, report says


For my money, there's not many better looking sedans on the road than a current generation M-Sport 5 series with LED headlights:

I agree with this statement.

 

[sickmint79]

i like that 7 a lot more than that mb.

it is surprising that they would go and not continue something along this line, i was interested in what the i5 was going to look and be like.

 

[Flyn]

Hopefully, BMW doesn't become the "Sears" of the auto industry.

 

[Mike K]

i like that 7 a lot more than that mb.

it is surprising that they would go and not continue something along this line, i was interested in what the i5 was going to look and be like.

Have you seen the 7 in person? That picture helps it. In person it's a pretty non-drama car. I would go so far as to say it's boring. The Mercedes is very look at me. I think the winner in the group is the A8.

Hopefully, BMW doesn't become the "Sears" of the auto industry.

They won't. They still make amazing cars that sell in droves. I think the entire industry is set for a wakeup call. As autonomy rolls out we're going to see vehicle ownership dip substantially.

In 10 years I suspect we'll be looking at exponentially more electric cars than now, perhaps 20% of the market and I think proportionally there will be less cars sold than there are now. In that respect, I'd be less apt to invest long term in a company like BMW than I would in a company like Tesla because if I'm right, BMW's sales numbers are going to decline whereas Tesla's will grow. Either way, I think we see the makings of a shrinking auto industry very soon.

 

[jason05gt]

The i3 hasn't sold well because it's a hideous looking vehicle. It's up there with the Pontiac Aztec as WTF were you designers thinking.

I'm not sure about pure EV's being 20% of the market, that's really high. If you are counting Hybrids (gas/electric), that's probably fair, but there's two unknowns. The first unknown is gas prices. If gas prices remain low, the ramp rate of EV's will remain slow. The second unknown is the Government in regards to EV credits. If the EV tax credit falls off, EV sales will suffer. On the flip side, the opposite can happen and gas prices rise and the tax credit remains (or improves) and EV sales will ramp up quicker.