BMW Exec Says Charging Infrastructure Is Holding Back EV Adoption

He's right in some ways, but BMW could just go ahead and install chargers like Tesla has done.

BMW X1 xDrive25e (2019)

Steven Loveday

By: Steven Loveday

Oct 3, 2019 at 2:34pm ET

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Wait, but what about all those people who simply charge at home? And, the city dwellers who generally have some decent access to public charging. Are we just talking about long road trips here? If that's the case, charging infrastructure is growing by leaps and bounds, but it's safe to say it's agreeably not nearly where it needs to be yet.

More BMW Electric News:

As automakers continue to tout their collective transition to electric vehicles, not much is happening. Most have missed deadlines and have nothing to show for it. BMW is about as bad as it gets in terms of actually making EV plans a reality. Its EV sales are way down and it has even stopped reporting that number. Instead, it just tells us each month how much worse the picture is via a percentage decrease.

According to BMW's vehicle sales press release:

"Sales of BMW Group electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles decreased 52.5 percent in September 2019 vs. September 2018. Model changeover has limited the current BMW Group electrified lineup to six models including the new BMW 745e and the BMW i3, BMW i8 Coupe, BMW i8 Roadster, BMW 530e, and MINI Countryman plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Several new plug-in hybrid BMW models will arrive in 2020. The fully electric MINI Cooper SE will also arrive in 2020."

This means we have to look back a year, do a bunch of math, and then split out total among multiple models. Not fun and not transparent. C'mon BMW! However, to be fair, we can't really criticize the automaker too much, since it seems they're just following suit with many other automakers.

Anyhow, a recent report from BMW Blog seems to tell all. BMW director of global research cooperation Stephan Neugebauer shared during a recent speech:

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“No one will buy an electric car if you can’t charge it near your work or home. It’s as simple as that. That is why we must continue our partnership with the European Union. Except that we no longer need to focus solely on the actual development of the car itself, as has been mainly the case in recent years. We should focus on cooperation with others, like energy companies and municipalities.”

“You just have to be able to drive somewhere and stick the plug into a socket so that you can charge a car. That’s my vision for the future."

The good news is, Neugebauer also admitted that funds and plans are already in place to ramp up charging infrastructure, at least in Europe.

Source: BMW Blog

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