In tune with its electric landing in the region, BMW Group has decided to invest 724 thousand euros in Latin America with the aim of strengthening the public charging network for electrified vehicles.
This investment will be carried out in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru, for the installation of new chargers for electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
Through this investment, users of electrified cars from BMW and MINIas well as BMW Motorrad electric motorcycles, currently not available in the country, will have access to more charging points on public roads, as detailed in a statement released by the German company.
“For the BMW Group, the future is electric, digital and circular; That is why we are committed to reinforcing and promoting this strategy in the region. Every BMW and MINI model sold in Latin America is accompanied by a personal or corporate charger, and we already have more than 65 thousand charging points in our customers’ homes or offices,” commented Reiner Braun, President and CEO of BMW Group Latin America.
“This year we celebrate 10 years of electric car sales in Latin America and we will continue to promote premium mobility. Today there are 9 purely electric models available in Latin America and another 9 plug-in hybrid options,” the executive reinforced.
The installation of chargers on public roads will be carried out with different alliances in different markets. More details will be shared in each country in due course when the information is disseminated. The BMW Group investment will be for new chargers and credit offer of energy to customers, who will be informed later.
What’s coming
BMW currently has an offer of two plug-in models in the Argentine market: the X3 xDrive30e SUV and the 330e sedan. Both are hybrids that have a battery that can be recharged by plugging it into an electrical network. With the battery charged, it is possible to have a consumption of 3 liters per 100 kilometers.
The offer of the German brand in the country is completed with the new X5, X6 and X7, which come with mild-hybrid technology. This system also combines a combustion engine with an electric generator, but this does not have the capacity to move the wheels on its own. Its function is to provide energy to all the vehicle’s electrical systems to separate the heat engine from these tasks.
The BMW iX2 will be the brand’s first 100% electric model in Argentina.The supply of electrified vehicles will increase in the coming weeks with the arrival ofl iX2, the first 100% electric model that BMW will offer in Argentina. It is a compact sporty SUV, which in other markets is offered with powers of 204 and 313 horsepower and declared autonomy levels of 478 and 449 kilometers respectively.
A year ahead for a record
As reported by the BMW Group, its current sales record for electric and hybrid vehicles. The BMW brand remains the preferred premium brand in the region with 20,678 vehicles delivered from January to June; While MINI reached 3,344 sales in the same period, they are not only in combustion models.
In this first half of the year, sales of electrified models of the BMW brand reached a total of 4,703 units sold (+22%). Where purely electric models reached the figure of 1,584 units (+43%), which represents a record for the company.
The locations of the chargers that BMW will install will be reported later.The sales of plug-in hybrid models were the largest in the company’s history in Latin Americareaching a total of 3,119 units (+13%).
MINI started off strong with the arrival of the new generation of models and has closed this first half of the year with 720 units sold of electrified models, in the same way as the previous year, with 9.2% being purely electric models.
