Unlike rivals, BMW's battery supply is steady and reliable, top exec says

While battery supply issues have slowed or stopped the production of full-electric models such as the Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace, BMW says its supply is steady and reliable. This is largely because the German automaker has been offering battery-powered cars since 2013, BMW sales boss Pieter Nota told Automotive News Europe Associate Publisher and Editor Luca Ciferri.

Battery supply shortages have slowed the production of full-electric models at some of your rivals. How will BMW ensure its supply?
Our long experience working with batteries, which dates back to the launch of the i3 in 2013, means we have a steady and reliable supply from our cell suppliers. We are not seeing any constraint so we still aim to have electrified models (battery electric and plug-in hybrid) account for 20 percent of our 2021 sales.

Have you decide which level of autonomous driving works best for BMW? Is that Level 2 plus, Level 3 or Level 4?
We are looking at customer experience and customer benefit rather than focusing on the level. We remain committed to offering highly automated driving in the iNext that arrives next year. The car will be able to take control on highways for a longer period of time. It will be eyes off, hands off, but the driver remains responsible and could be called to regain control in certain number of seconds.

Will BMW need to race to register cars that emit a high amount of CO2 before the end of this year to avoid EU emissions fines in 2021?
This won’t happen at the BMW Group. We will reduce our emissions in Europe by about 20 percent this year and be fully compliant with the new EU standards, both for 2020 and 2021. Missing targets is not an option at BMW.