21st Century Business Herald reporter Du Qiaomei Beijing reported that Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which lead the industry in the traditional luxury car market, are accelerating the electrification offensive.
On the evening of April 20, the new BMW 7 Series held its world premiere in Beijing and presented the innovative BMW i7 for the first time.
It is understood that the BMW i7 is the fifth pure electric product brought by BMW Group to China, and the debut of the BMW i7 means that BMW's pure electric product lineup has expanded into the large luxury car segment.
The new car is equipped with the BMW Group's fifth-generation electric drive system, which has a range of more than 600 kilometers, and adopts advanced computing platforms and intelligent equipment, making the new car technically possible for L3 automatic driving.
"The new BMW 7 Series was developed in Germany and the design was inspired by China. China is not only the world's largest market for the 7 Series, but also a leader in future automotive design trends. We believe that today's China's movements will lead the world's direction tomorrow. Gao Le, President and CEO of the BMW Group greater China, said.
According to the plan, in 2022, the BMW Group will mass-produce and trial-produce 15 pure electric vehicle models, covering about 90% of the luxury car segment. By the end of 2025, the BMW Group expects to deliver a total of 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide, with one in every four new vehicles sold in China. BMW's "next generation" model, which represents a leap forward in next-generation technology, will begin trial production in 2024 and be introduced to the market in 2025.
Also in the large pure electric luxury market segment, Mercedes-Benz has also accelerated the layout of products.
After mercedes-Benz's EQS flagship model EQS was launched in China in December last year, on April 19, the new EQS pure electric SUV ushered in the world premiere, which is also the third model and the first SUV model of the EQ brand based on the forward development of the EVA pure electric platform after the new EQS and the new EQE.
According to reports, the new EQS pure electric SUV is equipped with a rear axle motor as standard, and the dual-motor model is equipped with a permanent magnet synchronous motor at the front and rear, providing a maximum output power of up to 400 kilowatts, with a peak torque of up to 858 Nm; the cruising range of WLTP can reach 660 km.
It is worth mentioning that both Mercedes-Benz and BMW pay more attention to sustainability and carbon neutrality in the production process in the process of transforming towards electrification.
According to reports, the new EQS pure electric SUV is produced in a 100% carbon neutral manner, and more than 40% of the recycled steel used in the body shell comes from resource-saving materials, and its total weight exceeds 100 kg, significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Bmw i7's battery and vehicle production is all made of green electricity, and the targeted use of high standards of recycled aluminum and recycled materials significantly reduces carbon emissions in the supply chain.
However, in the past few years, Tesla has ridden the dust, Weilai and other Chinese brands have taken the lead, and the sales of traditional luxury brands in China's pure electric vehicle market are not very optimistic.
With the increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles, China has gradually entered a new stage of development of electric vehicles to replace fuel vehicles, and this trend in the high-end market is more obvious, and it is worth paying attention to whether traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW can continue to lead the industry trend under the new competitive pattern.