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Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls
Well they either do this or have everyone on here complain about an electric M car or why BMW doesn't have straight-six engines. BMW goes one way, people complain. BMW goes the other way, people complain. Regardless of what they do, it's not going to be perfect - they're trying to satisfy as many people as they can.
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Certainly navigating the waters during this disruptive period is a challenge, but that is true for every traditional automaker. BMW is the only one who has not committed to some type of legacy-free, dedicated platform for electric vehicles. One would have thought that this Neue Klasse initiative presented the perfect opportunity to move in that direction. CLAR and FAAR could still be maintained as needed for traditional vehicles, just as the combustion engine lineup will be.
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The most telling sign will be what the i4 brings. If is provides real world range of around 400km and all the stuff you would usually find in a BMW while maintaining a reasonable MSRP, this dual ICE/EV strategy will work. If not, then they might as well go full EV sooner rather than later.
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There's little doubt that the i4 and other upcoming electric BMW models will deliver the range and features people want. The question is, will they face scrutiny for not taking better advantage of packaging and design constraints that are removed once you no longer need to support the ICE drivetrain? In the near term, this may not be as important. But by 2025 when most consumers will have had some exposure to the new crop of EVs designed as such from the outset, the discrepancies between the two strategies may begin to present doubts.