Photo: BMW
With the BMW i3 now selling in the US, the German company is expecting sales to grow even further, even though the production has already been ramped up from the initial schedule by almost 40% to cope with the demand.
Back in 2013, European countries were the first to get the new all-electric model from Bavaria and in the meantime sales went beyond everyone’s dreams over in Munich. The most welcoming countries to the new model were Germany, the UK and, surprisingly or not, Norway.
Actually, in a recent interview for Automotive News, BMW’s Chief of Sales and Marketing, Ian Robertson, spoke about the Norwegian market and even made the bold statement that it is the biggest one for the i3 at the moment, compared to the population.
“In unit terms, it is currently a close run between the UK, Germany and Norway. But allowing for the obvious discrepancies in population and market size, Norway is where we have greatest i3 penetration at the moment,” Robertson said.
Looking over the laws regulating EVs in the Scandinavian country, it’s easy to see why such a development happened. Over there, government incentives are huge, EV drivers don’t have to pay toll fees, have dedicated highway lanes, the right to use bus lanes inside cities, free parking and free charging.
However, things might change in the near future with the introduction of the i3 in China and the US. BMW expects the US to become its largest market for the EV with China close behind. The Asian country could also very well topple the US if the government decided to invest heavily in grants, to reduce the air pollution around its biggest cities.
With smog becoming an even bigger problem in the Asian country, such a measure could very well be put in place, to make amends. At the moment, the incentives offered by the Chinese government have already been depleted for 2014, in the first couple of months. Even so, the i3 will go on sale in the communist country towards the end of this year so chances are its customers might get a taste of these facilities in 2015.
Actually, in a recent interview for Automotive News, BMW’s Chief of Sales and Marketing, Ian Robertson, spoke about the Norwegian market and even made the bold statement that it is the biggest one for the i3 at the moment, compared to the population.
“In unit terms, it is currently a close run between the UK, Germany and Norway. But allowing for the obvious discrepancies in population and market size, Norway is where we have greatest i3 penetration at the moment,” Robertson said.
Looking over the laws regulating EVs in the Scandinavian country, it’s easy to see why such a development happened. Over there, government incentives are huge, EV drivers don’t have to pay toll fees, have dedicated highway lanes, the right to use bus lanes inside cities, free parking and free charging.
However, things might change in the near future with the introduction of the i3 in China and the US. BMW expects the US to become its largest market for the EV with China close behind. The Asian country could also very well topple the US if the government decided to invest heavily in grants, to reduce the air pollution around its biggest cities.
With smog becoming an even bigger problem in the Asian country, such a measure could very well be put in place, to make amends. At the moment, the incentives offered by the Chinese government have already been depleted for 2014, in the first couple of months. Even so, the i3 will go on sale in the communist country towards the end of this year so chances are its customers might get a taste of these facilities in 2015.
Google News