BMW iX - Munich's electric flagship could cost S$300,000 in Singapore

Singapore

A BUSY week for BMW saw it announce plans to accelerate its electric car programme, along with details of the iX, the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) that will serve as its battery-powered flagship.

The company said on Wednesday that it will launch the iX in two versions and that their prices are benchmarked against comparable versions of its X5, a combustion-powered SUV.

BMW Asia intends to launch the iX here by year end.

Presumably, the iX xDrive40 will have a similar price to the petrol X5 xDrive40i, which costs S$356,888 with Certificate Of Entitlement and a S$20,000 pollution penalty. With early adoption incentives for electric vehicles and more generous rebates for clean cars having taken effect this year, The Business Times estimates that the iX could be as much as S$65,000 cheaper if it qualifies for the maximum rebates possible.

BMW said the iX xDrive40 has a range of around 400km on a single charge, while the xDrive50 version's larger battery pack would take it past 600km. Both cars have motors for the front and rear axles, giving them four-wheel drive and fairly rapid acceleration. The xDrive40 zips to 100km/h in a little more than six seconds, while the xDrive50 nails the same sprint in under five.

The Munich-headquartered brand also announced full year results on Wednesday, and said profits were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic because worldwide lockdowns dented weeks' worth of sales. Worldwide deliveries fell 8.4 per cent to 2,325,179 cars in 2020, while net profit for the year fell 23.2 per cent to 3.86 billion euros (S$6.18 billion).

The company said its most premium models, the 7 Series, 8 Series and X7, saw sales rise 12.4 per cent to more than 115,000 units, while profits in the final six months of the year were actually sharply higher than for the same period in 2019.

Group chairman and chief executive Oliver Zipse said BMW would focus on returning to pre-pandemic profit levels this year, but that electric cars feature heavily in its longer term plans.

It said it would bring forward the launch of the i4, its next full electric vehicle, by three months. It is working on electric versions of its 5 Series, X1 and 7 Series, and aims to have sold two million full electric cars by the end of 2025.

At the same time, it said its Mini brand would launch its final new combustion-powered model in 2025 and phase them out thereafter. The move is in line with a broader aim to sell only electric Minis by 2030, but it suggests that BMW is aware not just that electric cars are coming, but that combustion cars are going.