BMW has been working away at its electrified vehicle range for a number of years now and combined sales for its Mini electric, BMW i and BMW iPerformance vehicles have now topped 250,000 units globally. 2017 in particular was a good year for BMW’s fledgling i-branded vehicles, having topped 100,000 units. With only the i3 being classified as all-electric, the majority of these sales have been gas-hybrid. However BMW plans to expand its all-electric offerings as well as introduce some next-generation hybrids in the coming months.
Publication Hybrid Cars reported that while the US only accounts for 7.3% of BMW’s total electric sales, year-on-year performance showed a significant growth of 73% in the States over the same period the previous year. We are still behind Europe and especially China, which has a massive market for electric and hybrid vehicles, but with numbers like that the situation may soon change. The performance-focused M Series cars also had a record-setting year but even with 80,000 M cars finding homes in 2017, they still trail the electrified range. The situation is likely to repeat itself in 2018 as April electrified sales stats show an increase of 52% over the same month last year.
While the i3 is currently the only all-electric vehicle (when not fitted with the gas-powered range extender option), it will be joined by the all-electric Mini and iX3 crossover which should be available during the latter half of 2019. Until then we have iPerformance hybrids spanning the 3,5,7 and X models, the plug-in Mini as well as the sublime i8 (which recently became available in Roadster trim) to choose from.
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