BMW electric cars surpasses 100,000 sales target

BMW stated on Monday it had hit its target of selling 100,000 electric cars this year worldwide, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models including the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer.

This is over 60 percent increase from the 62,255 electric cars the automaker sold in 2016. The German luxury automaker has stated it expects 2018 electric-vehicle (EV) sales to grow by a medium two-digit percentages.

A leader in electric cars, BMW introduced the i3 hatchback in 2013 however sales have been reasonably low and management has wrestled with whether to go full-scale for electrification.

But that changed in September when the Munich-based group stated it would prepare for mass production of electric vehicles and aimed to have 12 totally electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 kilometers.

“Electric mobility is the indicator where I determine our success,” CEO Harald Krueger stated.

Previously on Monday, U.S. EV battery company Solid Power stated it had partnered with BMW to establish the next-generation solid-state battery technology for use in electric cars.