Eighty-Five Percent Of BMWs In 2030 Will Still Have A Combustion Engine

At least according to one current top executive.

Change is rapidly taking place in the auto industry. Not even a decade ago diesel-engined vehicles were still viewed as one answer to lowering C02 emissions, and traditional sedans still sold in high numbers. It’s amazing how much has changed. Given all of the recent and ongoing advancements in battery and autonomous technologies, take a moment and imagine the world in 2028. Will we still be driving cars with our hands? Will they all be battery-electric? Will internal combustion be a permanent thing of the past? For BMW, internal combustion technology isn’t going anywhere just yet.

Speaking with Go Auto, BMW’s R&D boss Klaus Froehlich was, on the one hand, optimistic that global markets will soon be adopting electric vehicles, but also fairly certain there’s still a place for diesel engines. However, chances are there will be fewer of them due to less demand. “Yes, four and six cylinders will remain in the market. And I will have at least four power derivatives on the diesels,” he said. “But I think the high-end diesels, for example M50d, it is a challenge to do anyway. It is a challenge to comply to future emissions and the market is small.” Remember, BMW is done with diesel in the US, but oil burners will remain on sale in other markets.

As for the percentage of electric, plug-in hybrids and straight up internal combustion, Froehlich had this to say about BMW in 12 years’ time: “A very optimistic scenario says 30 percent of BMWs will be pure electric or plug-in hybrids and seven percent will be combustion. If you assume that, from this 30 percent, half of them are plug-in hybrids – I have 85 percent in my portfolio in 2030 with a combustion engine.” Whatever may or may not happen, Froehlich confirmed BMW will be ready to meet electric mobility needs.

“We already purchased… cobalt and lithium from 2025-35. We already have the second life in place for consumers or for grid stabilization, we have built these battery farms. We are prepared to deliver.” But which countries, at least according to BMW, are likely to be the last to fully adopt electric vehicles and stick with internal combustion for the foreseeable future? The German automaker believes Russia and Australia, in particular, will be filling up at gas stations for years to come.

Eighty-Five Percent Of BMWs In 2030 Will Still Have A Combustion Engine

At least according to one current top executive.

Change is rapidly taking place in the auto industry. Not even a decade ago diesel-engined vehicles were still viewed as one answer to lowering C02 emissions, and traditional sedans still sold in high numbers. It’s amazing how much has changed. Given all of the recent and ongoing advancements in battery and autonomous technologies, take a moment and imagine the world in 2028. Will we still be driving cars with our hands? Will they all be battery-electric? Will internal combustion be a permanent thing of the past? For BMW, internal combustion technology isn’t going anywhere just yet.

Speaking with Go Auto, BMW’s R&D boss Klaus Froehlich was, on the one hand, optimistic that global markets will soon be adopting electric vehicles, but also fairly certain there’s still a place for diesel engines. However, chances are there will be fewer of them due to less demand. “Yes, four and six cylinders will remain in the market. And I will have at least four power derivatives on the diesels,” he said. “But I think the high-end diesels, for example M50d, it is a challenge to do anyway. It is a challenge to comply to future emissions and the market is small.” Remember, BMW is done with diesel in the US, but oil burners will remain on sale in other markets.

As for the percentage of electric, plug-in hybrids and straight up internal combustion, Froehlich had this to say about BMW in 12 years’ time: “A very optimistic scenario says 30 percent of BMWs will be pure electric or plug-in hybrids and seven percent will be combustion. If you assume that, from this 30 percent, half of them are plug-in hybrids – I have 85 percent in my portfolio in 2030 with a combustion engine.” Whatever may or may not happen, Froehlich confirmed BMW will be ready to meet electric mobility needs.

“We already purchased… cobalt and lithium from 2025-35. We already have the second life in place for consumers or for grid stabilization, we have built these battery farms. We are prepared to deliver.” But which countries, at least according to BMW, are likely to be the last to fully adopt electric vehicles and stick with internal combustion for the foreseeable future? The German automaker believes Russia and Australia, in particular, will be filling up at gas stations for years to come.

Eighty-Five Percent Of BMWs In 2030 Will Still Have A Combustion Engine

At least according to one current top executive.

Change is rapidly taking place in the auto industry. Not even a decade ago diesel-engined vehicles were still viewed as one answer to lowering C02 emissions, and traditional sedans still sold in high numbers. It’s amazing how much has changed. Given all of the recent and ongoing advancements in battery and autonomous technologies, take a moment and imagine the world in 2028. Will we still be driving cars with our hands? Will they all be battery-electric? Will internal combustion be a permanent thing of the past? For BMW, internal combustion technology isn’t going anywhere just yet.

Speaking with Go Auto, BMW’s R&D boss Klaus Froehlich was, on the one hand, optimistic that global markets will soon be adopting electric vehicles, but also fairly certain there’s still a place for diesel engines. However, chances are there will be fewer of them due to less demand. “Yes, four and six cylinders will remain in the market. And I will have at least four power derivatives on the diesels,” he said. “But I think the high-end diesels, for example M50d, it is a challenge to do anyway. It is a challenge to comply to future emissions and the market is small.” Remember, BMW is done with diesel in the US, but oil burners will remain on sale in other markets.

As for the percentage of electric, plug-in hybrids and straight up internal combustion, Froehlich had this to say about BMW in 12 years’ time: “A very optimistic scenario says 30 percent of BMWs will be pure electric or plug-in hybrids and seven percent will be combustion. If you assume that, from this 30 percent, half of them are plug-in hybrids – I have 85 percent in my portfolio in 2030 with a combustion engine.” Whatever may or may not happen, Froehlich confirmed BMW will be ready to meet electric mobility needs.

“We already purchased… cobalt and lithium from 2025-35. We already have the second life in place for consumers or for grid stabilization, we have built these battery farms. We are prepared to deliver.” But which countries, at least according to BMW, are likely to be the last to fully adopt electric vehicles and stick with internal combustion for the foreseeable future? The German automaker believes Russia and Australia, in particular, will be filling up at gas stations for years to come.

The Next Bentley Mulsanne May Not Have A Combustion Engine

But the current model will stick around until the early part of the next decade.

While Rolls-Royce introduced the new eighth-generation Phantom last year, the current-generation Bentley Mulsanne has been around since 2010. You would think Bentley's flagship luxury sedan is long overdue an update, but according to a report by Autocar we may have to wait until next decade for an all-new Mulsanne to arrive. According to the report, the current model will remain in production until the early 2020s because Bentley can’t decide how its flagship luxury sedan should evolve in the future.

And when it does eventually arrive, it could ditch its twin-turbo 6.75-liter V8 gasoline engine in favor of a fully electric powertrain. Bentley also still hasn’t decided whether the new Mulsanne will be a like-for-like successor or reinvented as a completely different car, according to Autocar. It will still be positioned as Bentley’s range-topping flagship model, however. While Bentley isn’t keen on building an all-electric version of the Bentayga SUV, the British automaker is considering transforming the Mulsanne into a flagship luxury EV. The timing would make since, as EV technology will have evolved considerably by the time the new Mulsanne launches - but it will face some strong competition.

Volkswagen is planning to put the electric Vizzion I.D. sedan into production by 2022, while Aston Martin will have launched its new Lagonda luxury brand. Jaguar is also heading in a similar direction, with plans to take on Tesla with an all-electric XJ next year as the company’s new flagship sedan. Rumors have also suggested Bentley is considering building a four-door electric coupe using hardware adapted from the Porsche Mission E. Bentley has already started its electrification strategy with the recent reveal of the Bentayga Plug-In Hybrid at the Geneva Motor Show.

Spy shots have also caught the next-generation Flying Spur with an extra fuel cap, indicating it will also be partially electrified. An all-electric Continental GT is also on the cards for the future next-generation model, but we probably won't see it for over a decade.

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