Automotive News Europe - December 2019 - S9

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

TALK FROM THE TOP

How often should a battery-driven
car be fast charged?
Not too often. Ideally it should be every
20 charging cycles.
Why, then, is BMW one of the founding investors in European fast-charging infrastructure builder Ionity?
We had to because in 2017 no one was
willing to invest [in a charging infrastructure]. Now the situation is completely
changed. Energy providers and oil companies are investing, so the charging infrastructure is coming. That's good news
because this is not our core competence.
What has BMW learned from the customers who are already driving its
electrified models?
What we have learned, which is significant
because by year-end we will have 500,000
electrified models on the road, is that customers recharge either at home or the office. Charging elsewhere seldom happens.
What is the global sales outlook for
electrified models?
The best assumption is that electrified vehicles will account for 20 percent to 30
percent of worldwide sales by 2030, but
with a very diverse global distribution. China's big east coast cities will become purely electric pretty soon while western China
will rely on gasoline engines for the next 15
to 20 years due to a lack of infrastructure.
And for Europe?
In Europe there is reluctance to jump directly to BEVs, so plug-in hybrids are the
right solution. They will be used as BEVs
during the week and run on gasoline on
weekends or long trips. We expect plugin hybrids to account for up to 25 percent of [European sales], gasoline and
diesel will have more than 50 percent
and the rest will be BEVs.
How about the U.S.?
Most of the U.S. does not need BEVs.
We could offer high-performance plug-in
hybrids in the M space, providing a lot of
fun to the driver as well as [environmental] credits for us. We see BEVs mainly
in the west coast and parts of the east
coast, while the rest of the U.S. will continue with conventional gasoline engines.
And the rest of the world?
Russia, the Middle East and Africa are

2019

In Partnership with

areas where there is no recharging infra- fast charger that is called a fuel cell and a
700-bar hydrogen tank somewhere in the
structure at moment.
car. We develop fuel cells with Toyota and
Will BMW streamline its internal comwill begin pilot production of the second
bustion engine offerings?
generation of these models at the beginRegulations on internal combustion en- ning of the next decade on the X6 and X7.
gines are accelerating and getting more
diverse all over the world. We have to up- Is the cost still prohibitive?
date our engines every year, especially for Right now a fuel cell powertrain costs
China. Because this costs a lot of money, about 10 times more than a BEV's system.
we have to streamline our offerings. On We plan to have those costs equalized by
the diesel side, production of the 1.5-liter, 2025 with the third generation of our scalthree-cylinder entry engine will end and able fuel cell system, which could result in
the 400-hp, six-cylinder won't be replaced volumes in the hundreds of thousands.
because it is too expensive and too com- Are higher volume fuel cell passenger
plicated to build with its four turbos. How- cars about six years away?
ever, our four- and six-cylinder diesels will
remain for at least another 20 years and I think that the future developments of
battery cells could make them the most
our gasoline units for at least 30 years.
suitable solution for passenger cars
What about big gasoline engines by 2025. We foresee fuel cells as a visuch as the V-8 and V-12?
able solution for light- and heavy-duty
trucks,
which are facing very tough CO2
The V-12 may not have a future given that
we only produce a few thousand units each reduction targets and already use very
year and the several thousand euros of efficient diesels, so the next step could
added cost it takes to make them compli- only be electrification. But you cannot
ant with stricter emissions rules. When it electrify a heavy truck with batteries,
comes to the V-8, it's already difficult to cre- because reducing the payload from 6
ate a strong business case to keep it alive tons to 7 tons is absolute nonsense.
given that we have a six-cylinder high-pow- With a single recharging station, you
ered plug-in hybrid unit that delivers 441 can refuel a fleet of 100 hydrogenkilowatts (600 hp) of power and enough powered light trucks overnight. About
200 highway refueling stations could
torque to destroy many transmissions.
serve thousands of heavy trucks across
What is the future for fuel cells?
Europe, which means that on the infraA fuel cell is a BEV without a battery but a structure side, this is feasible. ANE

BMW has found that its customers recharge electrified models
such as the i3 either at home or at the office. Charging elsewhere
seldom happens.

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Automotive News Europe - December 2019

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