How to get people buying EVs

The trigger for the transition of electric vehicles from niche to mainstream sales appeal among new car buyers is a range of 600km to 700km and an empty-to-full recharging time 20 minutes or under.

Those are the thresholds BMW has distilled from its pool of 170,000 electrified-vehicle owners, which it claims is among the largest captive knowledge banks on the subject any auto company can tap into.

BMW Group is forecasting 20 per cent of its new vehicle sales will be either PHEV or BEV by 2025.

It has announced its intention to have 25 electrified vehicles in the market by 2025, 12 of which will be battery electric, with the latter offering ranges up to 700km.

“The beginning of the 2020s we will see another two or three updates on battery technology and cell technology, so then we will see ranges up to 600 or 700km,” said Dirk Arnold, vice-president of product management for BMW i Brand and e-mobility.

“I think that will be then definitely sufficient for all needs across your personal mobility.

“Range is the currency that customers think about.”

The flipside of range is charging time and Arnold described that as the “decisive factor” in attracting converts to EVs.

The establishment of a comprehensive recharging infrastructure was also crucial, he added, as that quelled concerns about range anxiety, a commonly held fear that discouraged people from buying EVs.

“No-one talks about gas stations because everyone knows they are all across the country and you can go from gas station to gas station,” said Arnold. “The same holds true for the charging infrastructure.”

BMW is part of a joint-venture along with Daimler, Ford and VW developing a chain a of 400 upgraded High Performance Charging (HPC) stations across Europe, that boost the charge rate from today’s 50kW DC to 350kW-plus AC/DC.

A current-day battery can be charged in 20-30 minutes at 50kW, but it would be much longer for the larger batteries expected to launch over the next few years. The HPC station will be able to recharge a future 100kWh battery from empty back to 500km range in just 20 minutes.

“We did a lot of market research and based on all the feedback we got 20 minutes is acceptable,” Martin said. “Of course it would be better to do that in 10 minutes.”

The new HPC 350kW-plus system will allow that 10-minute target to be hit as not all drivers will be recharging from empty to full.

“In 10 minutes you can get a lot of charge into the battery,” Arnold said.

While a conventional petrol or diesel engine requires just five minutes to refuel, Arnold argues that EV owner must also re-educate themselves to recharge at every opportunity.

“With a better infrastructure you have the possibility to charge at the home or the office, or when you are at the supermarket or the shopping mall. Then the charging time doesn’t really matter.

“People learn but trying to explain that to the customer in the beginning, that is hard.

“They need to learn that and with more customers in electric vehicles they will spread the work also; ‘well I don’t have any trouble in electric vehicles’. The best promotion of EVs is word of mouth.”

Arnold said younger generations more attuned to constant charging of their smartphones adapted more quickly to adopting this philosophy.

He said the move from traditional ICE drivetrains to electrification would proceed at different paces in different parts of the world.

“It’s not black and white. Across the world you have the movement to electrification on different levels and different speeds.

“We have some countries like the legendary Norway … where electrification is really on the rise. Then you have other countries where it is so-so.

“It all depends on the right mix of measures and activities. That’s why we believe it’s irreversible, electrification will come. Will it be tomorrow, one week or 10 years? That’s hard to say.”

Arnold said factors that affected the rate of electrified vehicle take-up included infrastructure roll-out, subsidies and pricing and preferential on-road access to such thing as city centres and bus lanes.