BMW Says It's Too Early For In-House Battery Bet

The company will stick to buying cells from external suppliers until the technology matures.

Photo by: BMW AG.

By: Mark Kane

Jan 13, 2022 at 12:46pm ET

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BMW, unlike some of the other manufacturers - including Daimler and Volkswagen - is not willing to invest in in-house EV battery cell production.

According to Reuters' article, the company says that it's simply too early to scale up internal battery cell production until the technology develops further.

Let's recall that BMW Group (BMW and MINI brands) is sourcing battery cells from Samsung SDI and more recently also from CATL. Additionally, the company has a deal with Northvolt for future battery supply.

The German company has competence in cell development and even battery recycling, but in terms of series production, it limits itself only to modules (multiple cells combined together) and packs (the complete battery system).

According to Nicolas Peter, BMW's CFO, it's not clear which technology (battery chemistry) is right to choose at the moment:

"We have secured our needs for the next few years very well with the partners we have,"

"We are not yet at the point where we can say what technology will accompany us for the next 10-15 years," he said. "That's why it's important to invest a lot of resources with worldwide partners in battery cell development."

BMW Group had a very good year in 2021, becoming the global number one premium manufacturer (by volume), achieving margin targets and increasing plug-in car sales by over 70% to over 328,316, including 103,855 BEVs.

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Nicolas Peter noted that 2-3 years ago, the company did not expect that the transition to electric vehicles would move so fast.

Currently, BMW expects that in 2022 will double all-electric cars sales year-over-year, which means a new target of over 200,000 BEVs (plus plug-in hybrids).