BMW questions EV sustainability

The power switch to battery-electric vehicles is not sustainable without a significant increase in both renewable ‘green’ energy and recycling, says BMW’s vehicle development chief.

BMW’s Director of Development Dr Frank Weber said on Friday that regardless of how much more efficient EV motors and power electronics become, electric vehicles will not be sustainable unless the automotive industry “closed the circle” on recycling.

“Without a closed circle on the battery-electric side for cells, BEVs will never be sustainable,” said Weber.

“What we have to understand when it comes to raw materials – how they are processed, how they go into vehicles and how they’re going to be recycled – is that it takes so much energy to make the cells that we have to make sure the entire process is closed.

“The overall CO2 contribution [in EV battery cell manufacture] is larger than anybody thinks.”

Weber also warned there are very few countries that are ready to switch to a full fleet of EVs for their new vehicles – and there won’t be by 2035, when many countries including Australia could ban the sale of new combustion-powered vehicles.

“When you look at the numbers, in the late ’20s 50 per cent of our portfolio will be BEV,” Weber explained.

“When you look at the regulations, there will be a promised change in the mid ’30s, but when you look at BEV readiness, you have to look at charging, green electricity, gigafactories...

“Do the math and you see this is already super ambitious to say 100 per cent BEV in 2035.

“Firstly, if the charging isn’t green then it doesn’t make sense.

“There is no plan in any country that sees the investment needed and this is not the plan that works.

“The plan is: you have to prepare the whole system for this BEV capability, from charging infrastructure, gigafactories, renewable power, recycling, European materials for European factories.”

The scale of the investment in EV battery factories alone is immense, and it goes beyond money. BMW has committed to six new battery factories by 2030, which equates to more than 1200 hectares of land, preferably near transport hubs and existing automotive factories.

“The scale is huge. This is ambitious by the late ’20s to have 50 per cent of the new-car fleet converted, and we aren’t there,” said Weber.

“Some regions are serious about getting prepared and others are too late.

“Look at China. They know they will be not be able to make the conversion happen and China won’t be 100 per cent electric in 10 years.”

BMW is, like basically every car-maker, injecting more EVs into its range, and has plans to have an all-electric version of every model it sells by 2025.

“We are reducing CO2 by 50 per cent in the use phase [driving], but it goes down by 40 per cent over the life-cycle of the car by 2030 compared to a combustion-powered vehicle,” Weber explained.

“Our production contribution has been reduced by 80 per cent and the supply chain contribution has been reduced by 60 per cent.

“But the battery part of the supply chain by itself is increasing by 40 per cent, therefore the actual reduction we have to cope with is minus 60 per cent and this all adds up to minus 40 per cent by 2030.

“To have those reductions we have to have more attractive BEV offers,” Weber said.

BMW’s Neue Klasse architecture, due to debut in the 3 Series in 2025, will run the sixth generation of BMW EV powertrains, but the iX1 small SUV is already on pre-order in Germany with significant recycling improvements.

“We will have up to 50 per cent recycled nickel in our battery cells, and if we are not going to close those circles, then BEVs will not be sustainable,” he said.

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