Oliver Zipse
The BMW boss defends the course of his company.
(Photo: dpa)
Passau BMW boss Oliver Zipse has defended his group’s strategy of getting out of the production of classic internal combustion engines more slowly than, for example, the domestic competitor Audi. “The real decision-makers in our industry are the customers. And you should never lose sight of them, ”said the manager in an interview with the“ Passauer Neue Presse ”and the“ Donaukurier ”(Monday).
He referred to the plans of the Munich group to sell half of the cars with purely battery-electric drives in 2030. “If a manufacturer then no longer has a combustion engine offering, then half the market volume will be lost to them and they will find themselves on an entrepreneurial downward path.”
It is true that there will be cities, regions and countries in the next 15 years in which the transformation process to electromobility is taking place in full. But that will not be the case in the total of 140 BMW markets worldwide.