BMW is forecasting sales of 50,000 electric vehicles in the United States this year, more than triple the 15,584 EVs it sold last year in the country.
Shaun Bugbee, BMW of North America's executive vice president of operations, told Automotive News that BMW expects to sell 50,000 EVs this year, nearly triple the 17,964 EVs it sold in the first six months.
"We're driving electric more in the transition from a combustion-only to a world that includes combustion and BEV. The No. 1 volume car for us within BEV is i4," the executive said.
The BMW i4 electric compact sedan, which competes with the Tesla Model 3, made up nearly 60 percent of the brand's first-half EV volume, or 10,724 units.
"We have an accelerated Q3 and Q4," Bugbee said, referring to the arrival of the BMW i5, the brand's fourth battery-electric model, in late 2023. The executive added that the Q3 sales pipeline is "on a stable level with Q2."
Gallery: 2023 BMW i4 eDrive35
While BMW's sales target for 2022 is ambitious, the German luxury brand is way behind Tesla in US EV sales. Tesla does not break out sales by market, but the Automotive News Research & Data Center estimates Tesla delivered 173,000 vehicles in the second quarter, a 46 percent increase from a year earlier.
Even when BMW's internal combustion engine vehicles are taken into account, Tesla outsold the Bavarian brand 2 to 1 in the first half of 2023. BMW can take consolation in the fact that it is widening its lead over its arch-rival, Mercedes-Benz. The Bavarians outsold the Swabians by 10,661 units in the second quarter.
The US electric vehicle market is expected to grow in the coming years. Cox Automotive forecasts that 1 million new EVs will be sold in the US in 2023 as automakers bring 33 new EVs to market this year. A recent Cox survey found that 51 percent of US consumers are now considering electric vehicles, up from 38 percent two years ago.
Globally, BMW Group more than doubled all-electric car sales in the second quarter of 2023 to 88,289 units, with EVs making up 14.1 percent of the company's total volume.
