BMW boss Oliver Zipse
In the future, the CEO will focus on more sustainability in production.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The BMW Group wants to significantly reduce the consumption of resources in the future. The CEO Oliver Zipse announced on Wednesday at the virtual general meeting: “We have to align our vehicles with sustainability from the first day of development: reduce the use of materials for their manufacture and, above all, think about reuse and recycling from the start,” he said. In view of rising raw material prices, this is “not just an ecological, but also an economic imperative”.
Specifically, the carmaker is working on using more recycled steel, plastic or aluminum in the models of the “new class” from 2025 onwards. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions in production are to be reduced by 80 percent and in the supply chain by up to 20 percent by 2030.
Zipse announced only a few weeks ago that it would build “the greenest electric car” in the industry. The CEO, who has been in office since 2019, is under pressure: On the one hand, competitors such as Tesla and Volkswagen are currently faster with the introduction of new electric cars. BMW is therefore rated significantly weaker than its competitors on the stock exchange.
On the other hand, the rapidly rising raw material prices threaten to eat up profit margins. For this year alone, CFO Nicolas Peter puts the additional costs for primary materials at up to one billion euros. BMW fears in particular significantly higher costs for the procurement of steel, rhodium and palladium.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and be notified by email.
Nevertheless, the BMW managers assume that they will be able to significantly increase sales and profits in 2021. After the slump in the Corona year 2020, things are currently climbing steeply: The first three months of this year were the strongest in sales in the company’s history. Sales in April were ten percent above the level of 2019, the last year before the outbreak of the pandemic. The boom is being driven primarily by demand in China – BMW now sells almost every third car in Asia.
Electrification is not going fast enough for investors
Investors are still critical of the BMW course. This applies in particular to the strategy of not relying fully on electromobility until 2025 with the “new class”. Janne Werning from Union Investment warns: “In the current electric hype, a half-hearted commitment to electromobility is not enough to be successful on the stock market.”
The competition from Wolfsburg and Stuttgart pull BMW away in share price. “The future is traded on the stock exchange and BMW seems to have lost it,” said the fund manager.
BMW hopes for the turning point this year. With the electric sedan i4 and the luxury SUV iX, two new electric models will hit the market in autumn. Both cars should have a range of up to 600 kilometers and form the prelude to the electrification of the existing model range.
More: BMW in the balance sheet check: Why is the group worth so little?