Photo: BMW
BMW CEO Oliver Zipse has stated recently that companies should be careful not to become too dependent on a select few countries by focusing entirely on battery electric vehicles. This chief executive has long advocated against an all-out ban on internal combustion engine cars, despite rising pressure from regulators to curb carbon emissions.
Zipse also believes there’s still a market for ICE-powered cars, reports Reuters, which, to be fair, is a rather easy argument to make – from a supply and demand standpoint.
“When you look at the technology coming out, the EV push, we must be careful because at the same time, you increase dependency on very few countries,” said Zipse at a roundtable in New York, while emphasizing that supply of raw materials for batteries was controlled mostly by China.
“If someone cannot buy an EV for some reason but needs a car, would you rather propose he continues to drive his old car forever? If you are not selling combustion engines anymore, someone else will,” he stated.
The BMW boss went on to argue that offering more fuel-efficient internal combustion engine cars was key not only from a profit perspective, but also from an environmental perspective, while pointing the finger at gaps in charging infrastructure and the fact that fully electric vehicles tend to be considerably more expensive than their ICE-powered counterparts.
He then went on to say that carmakers also need to plan for energy prices and raw materials to remain high by being more efficient production-wise and stepping up recycling efforts in order to keep costs down.
“We have a peak now, they might not stay at the peak, but they will not go back to former prices. How much energy you need and use, and circularity, is important – for environmental reasons but even more for economic reasons,” concluded Zipse.
“When you look at the technology coming out, the EV push, we must be careful because at the same time, you increase dependency on very few countries,” said Zipse at a roundtable in New York, while emphasizing that supply of raw materials for batteries was controlled mostly by China.
“If someone cannot buy an EV for some reason but needs a car, would you rather propose he continues to drive his old car forever? If you are not selling combustion engines anymore, someone else will,” he stated.
The BMW boss went on to argue that offering more fuel-efficient internal combustion engine cars was key not only from a profit perspective, but also from an environmental perspective, while pointing the finger at gaps in charging infrastructure and the fact that fully electric vehicles tend to be considerably more expensive than their ICE-powered counterparts.
He then went on to say that carmakers also need to plan for energy prices and raw materials to remain high by being more efficient production-wise and stepping up recycling efforts in order to keep costs down.
“We have a peak now, they might not stay at the peak, but they will not go back to former prices. How much energy you need and use, and circularity, is important – for environmental reasons but even more for economic reasons,” concluded Zipse.
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