BMW believes it is better to develop platforms that support both ICE and electric powertrains when the pace of electrification remains uncertain.
27 Aug 2024 | 7664 Views | By Saptarshi Mondal
The recent global slowdown in the uptake of EVs has made several carmakers reassess their ambitious EV sales targets, and instead, announce new plans for hybrids and more efficient ICE models.
This, however, doesn't help with the optimisation of costs as carmakers who have made large investments for born-electric ...
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The recent global slowdown in the uptake of EVs has made several carmakers reassess their ambitious EV sales targets, and instead, announce new plans for hybrids and more efficient ICE models.
This, however, doesn't help with the optimisation of costs as carmakers who have made large investments for born-electric vehicle architectures now have to split their resources between ICE and EVs and remain flexible between these powertrain choices in the short to mid-term.
BMW seems to have got this strategy just right. Looking at the brand's India as well as global portfolio, apart from the electric-only iX, all of BMW's EVs have a combustion equivalent based on the same platform. Take, for instance, the pairs of X1/iX1, the new 5 Series/ i5, and the 7 Series/i7. Even the i4 sedan is based on a heavily modified version of the 3 Series' platform.
Essentially, all BMWs from the 3 Series and upwards are based on the CLAR platform, while the X1, iX1 and 2 Series Gran Coupe are based on the front-wheel drive UKL2 platform, both of which are compatible with petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid powertrains as well as batteries.
“We have always said we will remain flexible and the times are now proving us right,” said Jean-Philippe Parain, Senior VP, Sales for APAC, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, BMW Group in an interaction with Autocar India.
This is in contrast to some other premium carmakers like Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volvo, who have separate underpinnings for their ICE and EVs. For instance, Audi has segregated its new ICE and EV models to either be based on the PPC (Premium Platform Combustion) or PPE (Premium Platform Electric) platforms, respectively. The Q4 e-tron available abroad, meanwhile, is based on VW's MEB born-electric platform.
Similarly, at Mercedes-Benz, the EQS and EQE are underpinned by the EVA2 electric platform that's completely unrelated to the ICE equivalents of these models based on the MRA2 platform. Mercedes-Benz does have GLA/EQA and GLB/EQB twins based on the front-wheel drive MFA2 platform, but this will be phased out in 2025. Volvo, too, has done something similar with its born-electric architectures from parent brand Geely.
The point when this becomes a problem is when actual sales do not match the projected sales — as is happening now — and carmakers are not able to recover their investments in the short and mid-term. Additionally, while born EVs have to bear the cost all by themselves, in case of a shared architecture, the cost gets split between both derivatives and the products can be put on the market a lot sooner. Lastly, the multiplicity of platforms also increases the complexity and cost of production.
A couple of months ago, Mercedes completely dropped the development of the MB.EA Large born-electric architecture, having been put off by poor sales of the existing EQE and EQS models. Even the successor to Mercedes' MFA2 platform for the next-gen compact cars will not be exclusive to EVs, but will allow hybrid technologies too. More recently, JLR upped its investment on 'flexible' platforms after the slower- than-predicted EV take-up forced it to boost spending on platforms that allow combustion engines as well as electric powertrains.
What's more interesting is that from a user's point of view, there aren't huge gains to be had in terms of range. For example, the CLAR-based BMW i5 with the 81.2kWh battery has a claimed range of 582km on the WLTP cycle, while the born-electric Mercedes EQE and Audi A6 e-tron sedans with their respective 89kWh and 83kWh batteries return 618km and 610km on the WLTP cycle.
At the same time, EVs continue to grow, and it is clear that the future is going to be increasingly electrified. In fact, BMW too has committed to born-electrics with its future Neue Klasse range, but these models are still a couple of years away. In the short term, BMW's approach of a unified platform not only helps optimise costs, but it also prolongs the life of the combustion engine with hybrid technology, ultimately benefiting customers.
And this doesn't apply only to luxury carmakers, but also to mass-market brands: Homegrown carmakers like Tata Motors and Mahindra have particularly proved how effective shared architecture between ICE and EVs can be.
Meanwhile, says Parain, BMW remains ready to take advantage of the electric transformation, at whatever speed it takes place. "We expect 50% of our sales to be purely electric by 2030, but we will remain flexible. If the demand is slower, we will of course have more ICE vehicles," said Parain.
This feature was first published in Autocar Professional's August 15, 2024 issue.