In the past two days, a dramatic scene has occurred in the new energy market.
Before Mercedes-Benz, Audi released their own pure electric flagship model EQS SUV, urbansphere, and then BMW brought pure electric flagship model i7, the three almost privately made an appointment.
The truth behind this is actually that these three new cars were scheduled to debut at the Beijing Auto Show on April 21, but due to the impact of the epidemic, the auto show was postponed, and the three major German car companies did not want to postpone and disrupt their plans.
Compared with the two new cars of Mercedes-Benz and Audi, BMW is the only one to bring mass-produced models to the domestic conference site.
From the product point of view, this time the BMW 7 Series, whether it is a large breakthrough in conservative design, or the first rear with a 31-inch 8K giant screen of science and technology, it can be seen that BMW has given high expectations for this large luxury flagship sedan.
But also on the stage is the BMW i7, which gives the public a question: is this another oil-to-electricity product?
Quoting BMW CEO Zipps, the BMW 7 Series is the first luxury car in the BMW luxury segment to offer multiple power versions of internal combustion engine, plug-in hybrid and pure electric.
The high emotional intelligence understanding is that BMW fulfills the concept of "the right to choose"; the low emotional intelligence understanding is that it is not a product of oil and electricity?
But either way, BMW's "idea" of confusing the public will continue until 2025.
01
Is it oil to electricity, or electricity to oil?
BMW can be said to be the first batch of traditional car companies to start the electrification transformation, and it is best known for the pure electric BMW i3 released in November 2011.
But early start does not mean that it is a recognition of the trend, in the seven years after the BMW i3, BMW has not released any pure electric models, the reason behind it may be affected by the different directions led by leaders in different periods.
Starting with the idea that IN 2008, When Rescheff first proposed that BMW should reduce carbon emissions by producing eco-friendly vehicles, bmw electrification was broadly divided into three periods:
From November 2008 to September 2015, Raysef led the pure electric route;
From October 2015 to May 2019, Kruger led the plug-in hybrid route;
Since June 2019, Chiptzer has led the way in pure electric, plug-in hybrid plus hydrogen fuel cell replenishment.
During these three periods, Rescheff and Kruger did not agree on how to implement new technologies to reduce carbon emissions. In the early days of Chiptzer's appointment, BMW's management team was still divided over its electrification route.
In February 2020, BMW's management team repeatedly and publicly stressed that it would not create a new platform exclusive to pure electric vehicles because of the acceleration of electrification.
Chiptzer added that BMW adheres to a conservative investment strategy for electric vehicles, using a platform that can support both electric vehicles and ordinary internal combustion engine vehicles, which is also BMW's advantage.
BMW executive Udo Henler said it would cost about 1 billion euros (about 7.7 billion yuan) to build a brand new plant for electric vehicles, and if the existing factory were to be retrofitted to produce electric vehicles, it would only take 3 million euros (about 23 million yuan), whether in terms of development and manufacturing costs, using the existing platform is profitable.
In other words, if the technology and platform of fuel vehicles are completely abandoned, it is too costly and too long to develop and build electric vehicle production lines from scratch.
But Manfred Schauch, chairman of the BMW Group Staff Committee, said, "We can only take full advantage of electric vehicles if we have our own electric architecture, and if BMW does not want to be surpassed by competitors from California (such as Tesla) or competitors from China, it must have an exclusive platform for electric vehicles."
This internal divide continues into 2021, when Ziptzer decided to keep the course of the two former leaders, Rescheff and Kruger, until 2025: a continuation of the one-car multi-power strategy.
In the BMW X3, BMW 3 Series, BMW 7 Series can be seen, pure oil, pure electricity, plug-in hybrid three models on the same stage is BMW electrification short-term this concept.
Different from Volkswagen and General All in pure electric technology, BMW has chosen the integration route at this stage, that is, it is compatible with the three powertrains of internal combustion engine, plug-in and pure electricity, and pure electricity and hybrid power in electric technology.
For this "multi-dynamic strategy", Chiptzer explains that it is up to the consumer to decide which drive to choose, rather than imposing on the consumer.
But the result of this style of play is that the launch of each product will inevitably produce a phenomenon of "oil to electricity" for the public, including last month's i3 and the recent i7.
In fact, this is also the "helplessness" that BMW cannot avoid before 2025, and the clarification of this doubt has to start from the BMW CLAR platform.
CLAR is a modular platform launched by the BMW Group in 2015, offering both rear-drive and four-wheel drive platforms, with another name for UKL.
At the beginning of its development, the four-wheel drive CLAR platform includes the full coverage of pure electric models, 48V light hybrid models, plug-in hybrid models and fuel models.
The CLAR platform is not a pure electric platform, and it still contains the DNA of fuel vehicles in its bones.
However, as a general platform that can support the development of pure electric models, CLAR is fundamentally different from pure electric vehicles developed based on fuel vehicle platforms.
First, the so-called real oil to electric model from the product design point of view, the layout of the battery has made its internal space compressed smaller, the safety is worse, and limited by the body structure, the size of the battery pack that can be installed is also very limited, and at the same time, it also faces the problem of handling, such as the three major pieces changed to three electricity, the weight of the whole vehicle has a serious imbalance.
Second, oil-to-electricity platforms often fail to provide the advanced electrical and electronic architecture required for smart electric vehicles, let alone support the ability of OTA upgrades in the later stage of the vehicle.
However, these shortcomings of the oil-to-electricity model cannot be ignored, and the products on the BMW CLAR platform are not reflected, including the fuel version X5 based on the CLAR platform a few years ago, BMW has the vehicle OTA capability, officially called RSU online upgrade technology.
Looking at the entire new energy field, bmw CLAR's universal platform is not the first case.
For example, BYD Dynasty series products can also provide pure electricity and hybrid powertrains at the same time. In other words, BYD's BNA platform is also a development platform that is compatible with fuel, hybrid and all-electric models.
Therefore, instead of questioning the "oil to electricity" product of BMW's CLAR platform, it is better to ask BMW from a different perspective, is this an "electric oil" product?
Until 2025, BMW will continue to promote electrification with this strategy, and BMW's true pure electric platform NEU KLASSE (new generation) will be launched in 2025.
Chiptzer believes that the demand for electric vehicles will really explode after 2025, and it is too early to develop a pure electric platform.
Although it is affirmed that BMW has not perfunctorily perfunctorily transformed its electrification process with "oil to electricity" products, this does not mean that BMW has believed that it can completely rely on the pure electric market at this stage.
This idea is like BMW, although it was the first car company to release pure electric products, it did not fully recognize the pure electric path.
02
Go with the flow while reminiscing about the fuel market?
A few days ago, Chiptzer threw out a point at a roundtable in New York: BMW must be careful not to rely too much on a few countries and focus only on electric vehicles, he added, there is still a market for internal combustion locomotives.
Chiptzer also cited some of these reasons, such as consumer demand for internal combustion engine cars, and if someone can't buy an electric car for some reason, would you advise him to drive his old car forever? At the same time, it also includes inevitable problems such as the current charging infrastructure still gaps, and the high price of electric vehicles.
Despite growing pressure from auto industry regulators to limit BMW's carbon emissions and environmental impact, Chiptzer's belief in opposing a total ban on the sale of diesel locomotives has never changed, and what underpins Chiptzer's belief is profit.
In March this year, the BMW Group announced its 2021 financial report, as the global sales champion in the 2021 BBA, BMW sold 2521514 vehicles worldwide last year, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year; the total revenue for the year was 111.239 billion euros, of which the net profit was 12.463 billion euros, an increase of 223.1% year-on-year, breaking the previous historical record.
In this eye-catching data, the automotive business is indispensable, accounting for 85.83% of the BMW Group's revenue, and the contribution rate has increased steadily by 1.5%.
For this achievement of the BMW Group last year, Chiptzer said that this is due to the focus on profitable growth and sustainable development, with electrification and digitalization as the strategic focus, and firm investment in innovation.
But the reality is that last year, under the pressure of supply chains such as chip shortages, the BMW Group prioritized the production of models with higher profits, achieving a soaring profit for the whole year.
Taking the Chinese market as an example, BMW X7 sales increased by 23.8% last year over the same period last year, and at that time, relying on imported BMW X5, domestic sales also exceeded 50,000 units, as a luxury medium and large SUV, it also handed over an average of more than 4,000 units per month.
With the support of the localization of BMW X5 and the new generation of BMW 7 Series and other high-end models, even in the face of the continuous instability of the global car market in the first quarter of this year, BMW Group still insists that BMW's global sales in 2022 will be the same as last year.
On the contrary, in 2021, although the sales of pure electric vehicles in the BMW Group increased by 133.2%, the actual total was only more than 100,000 vehicles, accounting for only a little more than 4% of the group's total sales, including the sales volume of the BMW iX3 in exchange for a sharp price reduction.
It can be seen that BMW's main income last year also benefited from the performance of internal combustion engine vehicles, and the performance of pure electric vehicles only provided a relatively good result for BMW's electrification transformation at best.
Of course, BMW is not a representative of "conservative", and BMW also has a momentum of attack in the field of electrification.
In 2021, BMW invested a total of 6.299 billion euros in research and development, an increase of 10.7% over the previous year, mainly for new vehicle architectures and electric products, as well as digital products and autonomous driving research and development.
Not only that, but BMW announced that it will invest more than 30 billion euros in research and development and innovation by 2025, and electric mobility and digitalization will account for the majority of these investments. BMW said it will continue to increase investment in research and development of new technologies, maintaining a proportion of about 5%.
"By far the largest segment in Germany is the internal combustion engine, even if you look at the european and global markets as a whole," Says Chiptzer said. Before you give up your internal combustion engine for the next 8 or 10 years, you have to be clear about what you're doing. If you try to abandon the internal combustion engine in Germany and Europe, but the global market is not so fast, then you will lose the advantages of internal combustion engine technology in the global market."
It can be seen that BMW firmly believes that the future car must be electrified and digital era, but BMW also understands: at this stage, the internal combustion engine car is still the lifeblood, accounting for almost all the income of the group, relying on the internal combustion engine car, why should it revolutionize its own life?
03
BMW's China complex
In 2022, BMW will invest in 26 new vehicles in the Chinese market, including the BMW main brand, BMW i, BMW M, MINI and motorcycle segments.
Such a large-scale launch is rare in the industry. Including at the launch of the new generation of BMW 7 Series, whether it is the scene of choosing the most important flagship product in China as the global debut, or the "China as home" concept proposed by BMW, it reveals BMW's desire to "naturalize" China.
Chiptzer said that BMW is a global enterprise, our huge layout covers 27 European countries, but we can say that the largest and fastest growing market is Still China.
In BMW's previous product lineup, there are not many strategies to go through the global market with one generation, but the product design basically does not take into account the real needs of Chinese consumers.
As China becomes BMW's largest single market in the world, and the full electrification industry is more active than several other regional markets, it has become the country with the largest number of new energy vehicles in the world.
BMW has been emphasizing the "China First" strategy since last year, that is, in the development of new products, BMW will give priority to the needs of the Chinese market, and the domestic BMW X5 and BMW i7 are examples.
In addition, BMW has also set a "12345" strategic plan for the Chinese market:
1 is the "China first" principle;
2 is that both BMW and MINI brands are rooted in China;
3 is a firm transformation along the three directions of electrification, digitalization and sustainability;
4 Are four R&D and digital bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing;
5 is 5 BMW electric models will be available in China in 2022...
Product prioritization and transformation strategies targeting a single market mean that BMW, one of the world's largest luxury car manufacturers, is increasingly rooted in the territory of China.
Chiptse said the existing plant in Shenyang's Dadong District is currently undergoing a full expansion, and a new plant in Tiexi District is also under construction, and both are scheduled to open this year, which is also BMW's third automaker in Shenyang.
At the same time, the new electric vehicle plant of Beam Automotive, a joint venture between BMW Group and Great Wall Motors, in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, has entered the right track, and plant construction and product research and development have been promoted as scheduled.
In terms of localization R&D teams, BMW has built the largest R&D and digital system outside Germany in China, with a team of more than 1,650 people, including about 600 software developers, and will recruit more than 400 digital talents in China by the end of this year.
At present, electrification has long become the highlight of the "gambling on the future" of traditional car companies.
BMW, which has been known for many years as one foot has stepped into the field of electric vehicles, but the other foot is still in the era of the internal combustion engine, has obviously bet on the Chinese market for the next hundred years.
Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, said that in the past, in fuel vehicles, the Chinese market was the main competitive market for global car companies, and today's new energy vehicles have changed from the original competition of Chinese car companies in the local automobile market to the global competition of global car companies in the field of new energy.
After the game of the first half of the electrification era, a group of traditional fuel vehicles have been able to clearly feel that the advantages of the past have little help to the transformation of electrification, and even the actual performance has been greatly behind the rising stars of the crowd.
At this moment, China's automobile consumer market is not only the world's largest single market, but also because of consumers' pursuit of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, which has gradually evolved into an arena for global car companies.
As Chiptzer said: What China is moving today will lead the world in the direction of tomorrow.
"The Heart of the Car · The connoisseur said" trailer
On Tuesday, April 26, 20:00-21:00, Yang Tengfei, Vice President & Operation Director of MAXIEYE, Intelligent Driving Technology, will be a guest car heart · Experts said, talk about "how intelligent driving has become a new kinetic energy for heavy trucks to reduce costs and increase efficiency".