Combustion vehicle bans “premature”, says BMW
BMW boss warns of crisis due to premature sales ban of combustion-powered vehiclesWorld governments have been warned against creating a “self-inflicted” crisis by racing to electrify new-vehicle markets before their charging infrastructure can cope.
BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse has taken aim at governments, predicting some will spark a crisis by pushing too far, too fast to ban combustion-powered vehicle sales without viable charging networks to support electric vehicle (EV) fleets.
“So when something is happening there it is completely self-inflicted. That’s my take,” Zipse said last week during the launch of the all-electric BMW i7 limousine.
“To have a country without charging infrastructure and to think you can do only electric cars is a dangerous thing.
“Of course they moved too quickly.”
The European Parliament voted in June to ban the sale of new combustion-powered cars from 2035, by setting the mandatory vehicle emissions limit at zero.
This is not the end of the process, though, and must be voted on by member nations before it becomes law.
Given how many of the world’s automotive brands are based in Europe, it would have knock-on effects around the world.
The EV push is strongest in Norway, which plans to ban combustion-powered cars by 2025. Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, India, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK will cut them off by 2030 (though Scotland will wait until 2032).
Japan, Thailand and South Korea will wait until 2035, while Portugal, Spain and Italy are pushing for 2040.
Tiny Iceland will do it through inconvenience, with the green energy self-sufficient nation planning to wipe out half of its petrol stations by 2025.
However, the Scandinavian and northern European nations have something the UK doesn’t have: charging and EV industry supplier networks.
That gives combustion-engined cars just eight more years of sales in the UK, and Zipse insists the UK, in particular, is not ready for the deadline.
Former PM Johnson also approved 1.3 billion pounds to expand EV charging infrastructure, which Zipse slammed as insufficient and harmful for the UK, along with other countries.
“I am warning the British government not to end combustion engines. That will lead to shrinking of the industry,” Zipse insisted.
“Don’t make any mistake, BMW will be prepared for 100 per cent electric cars, but I'm not sure about the whole industry. And I'm not sure about many of the suppliers.
“So industry and workplaces and anything that has to connect it all will shrink.”
BMW has moved to a flexible architecture for its cars, allowing it to seamlessly switch between petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid and EV powertrains on the same production lines, depending on market and legislative demands.
The BMW Group has already moved MINI EV production out of the UK, though it will build Rolls-Royce EVs at Goodwood. Honda, too, has already closed its UK manufacturing operation in response to post-Brexit operating conditions.
The EV infrastructure situation in Australia is even worse than in the UK, though that didn’t stop the Australian Capital Territory this July announcing plans to ban combustion-powered cars by 2035.
The nation’s biggest auto club, the NRMA, has lobbied for a combustion ban in 2030.
“If anything, our targets here need to be a bit more aggressive than what we're seeing in other markets,” NRMA CEO Rohan Lund told the ABC’s Four Corners in July.
“I would expect to start seeing targets that are between 2025, 2030 for banning petrol-driven cars in this country.”
BMW itself has one of the broader EV ranges of the legacy car-makers, and its change of tack towards EVs began in earnest with the i3 EV megacity car in 2013.
It now has both stand-alone EVs (the iX) and EVs as part of familiar body styles and badge names (iX1, iX3, i4 and i7), plus a wide array of plug-in hybrids.
It has just announced the first all-electric Rolls-Royce, and it has had electric versions of the MINI hatch for three generations.
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Related: Europe to ban new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2035
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