FRANKFURT -- BMW plans to step up its production of electrified vehicles, CEO Oliver Zipse told a German newspaper.
"We already had ambitions growth plans and want to further expand our market position," Zipse said in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper published on Sunday.
Between 2021 and 2023, BMW will build 250,000 more electric cars than originally planned," Zipse said.
Electrified vehicles will account for about a fifth of BMW's sales by 2023, up from about 8 percent now, he added.
Zipse denied that BMW and other German automakers had underestimated electric-car maker Tesla, which is building its first European factory near Berlin.
Tesla's growth and market share gains, from a low base, were "an impressive entrepreneurial achievement," Zipse said.
Zipse said his "biggest concern" is that Germany's transition to electric cars will be hampered by a lack of charging infrastructure, with Europe's biggest economy expected to have as many as 10 million of the vehicles on the road by 2030. To cope with this amount, 15,000 private and about 1,300 public charging points would have to be put into operation every week starting now, Zipse told the paper.
"Unfortunately we are far from that," Zipse said. "Therefore, the next big joint project in Europe must be to expand charging infrastructure."
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report
