BMW announced plans to rev up its production of electric vehicles in 2021 with aspirations to double its sales in fully electric vehicles and upping its production of plug-in hybrids, increasing its total sale of electrified vehicles by 50% compared to 2020.
The carmaker’s Upstate facilities produce two of the company’s plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, the BMW X3 xDrive30e and BMW X5 xDrive45e, according to an email provided by BMW.
“We have produced the X5 PHEV for several years and started production of the X3 PHEV in December 2019,” said Steve Wilson, spokesperson for BMW. “Despite the COVID crisis last year, Plant Spartanburg produced more than 47,000 plug-in hybrid X3s and X5s.”
That makes up about 13% of BMW’s total production of 361,361 vehicles in 2020, according to Wilson.
“Production of these two electrified BMWs will increase in 2021,” he said.
Wilson declined to comment on potential new models being produced at BMW’s Spartanburg facility. He said the company does not comment on future models or where those models may be produced.
Read more: 5 millionth BMW made at the company’s Spartanburg County plant
In a press release on Jan. 15, Pieter Nota, member of the Board of Management of BMW, said the company’s leadership was optimistic about the new year. “We want to increase sales of our electrified vehicles by more than half in 2021. This underlines the importance of electromobility as a major growth driver for our company,” Nota said.
Nicolas Peter, BMW’s finance chief, said that while the carmaker usually considered other German carmakers as its rivals, San Fransisco’s electric car and clean energy company Tesla Inc. was an inspiration, Reuters reported.
BMW produces 13 electrified vehicles that are available in 74 markets. The carmaker plans to offer 25 electrified vehicles in 2023 with more than half of these models being fully electric, according to the release.
