New BMW CEO u-turns on i3’s axing

The future of the BMW i3 has taken an unexpected twist in that the Munich based automaker’s new CEO has voiced support for its first electric model to continue for a second generation.

Last month, BMW Management Board Member of Sales and Marketing, Pieter Nota, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that the mainstream inclusion of electrification has resulted in there being “no specific plan for an i3 successor”, despite sales having gone up by 21% during the first quarter of this year.

Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung however, CEO Oliver Zipse contradicted Nota’s claims by telling the paper that the i3, which went on sale as 2013, “will continue to be produced, no question about it”.

“The car is already an icon today. Which car can claim this after only six years? Icons tick according to a different logic, they don’t have a classic successor, they always remain true to themselves in essence,” Zipse said.

“We are growing with the i3 every year – in Europe this year by around 20 per cent. The investments have been written off, we earn money with every i3. Why [then] should we give up [on] this car, which is now at the height of its time? We are sure that the i3 still has great potential”.

A statement subsequently posed on the i division’s Facebook page confirmed Zipse’s statement with the caption reading, “The journey did not come to its end. Officially confirmed by BMW CEO, Oliver Zipse, BMW i3 production will continue in the future.
The BMW i3. #THEi3”.

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