BMW announced early September its plans to rapidly expand the number of battery-driven vehicles in its lineup, adding 12 all-electric nameplates and 13 hybrids by 2025, reports the BBC.
?The trend towards electric mobility is irreversible. But it will happen in different ways and at various speeds in different parts of the world,? the British outlet quoted BMW board member Klaus Fröhlich.
That?s why by 2020, the German automaker will offer hybrid or electric versions of every model in its range.
The news came shortly after Jaguar made headlines for making that same promise, to have battery-driven trims of each of its cars in place less than three years from now. The first will be the Jaguar I-PACE SUV (pictured top) due to go on sale next year. Another well-known British sports car marque, Aston Martin, also recently made known its intent to electrify its lineup in the near-future, despite the fact none of the vehicles it offers now use batteries for propulsion.
The company?s range will be fully hybrids by the mid-2020s, forecasted Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer in an interview with the Financial Times, and by the end of that decade, 25 percent of the line should be fully electric.
While the company could easily tap partners like Daimler, which supplies its V-8 engines, for help with EV drivetrains, it thinks the technology will be so core to its business that it wants to develop it all in-house, like Aston?s V-12s. The first vehicle to be hybridized will likely be the four...