According to foreign media reports, from 2025, BMW's new electric vehicle platform will switch to the next generation of low-cost batteries . According to people familiar with the matter, BMW will follow Tesla's example and use cylindrical batteries instead of square batteries in its "Neue Klasse" platform** It is reported that this transformation may reduce the battery cost by 30%.
People familiar with the matter said that BMW's existing partners would produce such cylindrical batteries. The company currently buys batteries from Ningde times, Yiwei lithium energy, Samsung SDI and northvolt ab.
Batteries usually account for four fifths of the price of battery packs, and improvements in technology and efficiency usually lead to a reduction in annual costs. However, due to the rising prices of key raw materials such as lithium and nickel, the changing trend between battery technology and efficiency and the annual cost of battery is under pressure, which also challenges the prediction of automobile manufacturers that the sales profit margin of electric vehicles will soon approach that of internal combustion engine vehicles.
Although BMW won the world's top luxury car sales from Mercedes Benz last year, the company's cautious electric vehicle strategy has not been praised as much as Mercedes Benz. This year, the Mercedes Benz prototype vision eqxx has a single charge range of more than 1000 kilometers, surpassing Tesla. The profit margin of Mercedes Benz's automobile division also led BMW, jumping to a record 16.4% in the first quarter.
According to Bloomberg Nef's 2021 study on the price of lithium-ion batteries, last year, the average price paid by carmakers for a pure electric vehicle battery pack was $118 / kWh. According to people familiar with the matter, the cost of BMW battery pack has been lower than this level.
People familiar with the matter also said that the energy density of BMW's new battery will be at least double-digit percentage higher than that of Tesla cylindrical battery, which may help BMW build electric vehicles with longer range than Tesla. But BMW did not provide more details about its new battery.