BMW electric cars launched a major counterattack.

BBA seems to be changing its situation of being "passively beaten" in the Chinese electric vehicle market in the past two years. Leading the pack is BMW.

At the beginning of the year, BMW, which proposed to "go all out for electrification," suddenly gained momentum. In the first half of the year, it sold more than 40,000 electric vehicles in the Chinese market, surpassing its old rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi, and closely following the new force NIO-SW.

According to BMW Group data, its delivery volume in the Chinese market in the first half of the year was 392,600 units. Among them, the sales of BMW pure electric models reached 44,900 units, a staggering year-on-year increase of 283%, far exceeding Mercedes-Benz and Audi. According to insurance data, the sales of pure electric vehicles from the latter two brands were around 10,000 units.

Not only that, BMW electric vehicles have also surpassed domestic new forces such as Jidu Auto (42,600 units), Changan BluePark (41,600 units), WM Motor (25,800 units), and XPENG-W (41,400 units).

The market clearly feels the astonishing speed of BMW's breakthrough. Prior to this, the three German luxury carmakers were rarely seen on the domestic new energy sales charts. BMW's annual sales of pure electric vehicles in China last year were only 41,900 units, a considerable gap compared to Tesla's 100,000+ units.

In the past six months, BMW has made a lot of efforts to increase sales. In fact, since the second half of last year, BMW's new energy series has been offering discounts, with the most significant price reductions seen in the iX3 and i3 models. The current terminal discounts for both models are around 100,000 yuan, with the discounted starting price of the iX3 being less than 300,000 yuan, and the starting price of the i3 reduced to 250,000 yuan.

While other joint venture carmakers are calling for "the same price for gasoline and electric vehicles," BMW's two pure electric vehicles have achieved "inverted pricing" through price reductions. Currently, the price of BMW 3 Series gasoline vehicles is in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan.

The effect of trading price for volume is significant, and the iX3 and i3 have quickly become the main force in BMW's electric vehicle sales. In the first half of the year, the sales of these two models exceeded 21,000 units, accounting for over 90% of the total.

BMW's distribution channels have also played a significant role. As of June, BMW has over 630 dealerships in China, covering the entire country, including many lower-tier cities.

The discounted BMW electric vehicles are quite attractive to car owners in second and third-tier cities, and BMW's decades-long channel advantages in these cities have fully come into play in terms of brand and reputation.

In addition, insiders close to BMW pointed out that the main consumer group for BMW electric vehicles is still BMW's existing customers. Moreover, dealerships have actively sent promotional information about electric products to potential car owners this year.

In any case, BMW has already made a breakthrough and entered an upward trajectory in the fiercely competitive electric vehicle market.

In the second half of the year, BMW will also start production of its third domestically produced pure electric vehicle, the iX1. Considering that the BMW X1 has consistently been the best-selling luxury compact SUV with annual sales of 90,000 units, the iX1 may become BMW's new high-volume electric product. The pure electric i5 will also be localized next year. With the support of multiple new products, the momentum of BMW's pure electric vehicle sales may continue to rise, and monthly sales of over ten thousand units are within reach.

Moreover, BMW, which declared "Home in China" this year, has also attached greater importance to localization management and research and development.

In April, BMW Group appointed Lei Kai as Senior Vice President of R&D for BMW China, responsible for overall research and development in China. On July 18th, BMW's new Shanghai R&D Center was put into operation, aiming to establish a foothold in China and contribute to the global market. Weibo Fan, Director of R&D at BMW Group, stated that China will play a more critical role in BMW's global R&D network.

Furthermore, last year, Franz Decker, Vice President of Technology at BMW Brilliance, who promoted the upgrading of domestic production and increased output, was promoted to President and CEO of BMW Brilliance.

BMW is also actively making up for deficiencies in areas such as electric vehicle components and the supply chain. Among them, the investment of billions of yuan in the power battery production project started in Shenyang in May. At the same time, BMW has further expanded its domestic charging network. Currently, its public charging network has connected over 540,000 charging piles nationwide, covering more than 320 cities.

Although BMW achieved good results in the first half of the year, there are still hidden concerns.

Firstly, while BMW's electric vehicle sales nearly tripled in the first half of the year, overall sales only increased by 3.7% to 392,600 units.

Obviously, some BMW gasoline vehicle users have switched to electric vehicles.

Secondly, BMW's pure electric products still come from the CLAR platform, which is not exclusively for electric vehicles but compatible with hybrid, extended-range, and pure electric power modes. The iteration of intelligent cabins and vehicle architectures is limited.

To address these issues, BMW plans to launch the all-new Neue Klasse pure electric platform by 2025 and release more than six pure electric products based on this platform within two years.

The plan seems orderly, but during this transitional period, challengers from new forces such as NIO-SW, Li Xiang, and Avita have been aggressively attacking the circle where BMW and other luxury brands are located. They not only intercept BBA's old users who want to try electric vehicles but also compete for the market share of gasoline vehicles.

Moreover, the second- and third-tier markets that contributed to BMW's growth this year will also become new battlegrounds for brands like We Xiaoli. XPENG-W has invited "Iron Lady" Wang Fengying to be responsible for channel expansion. Li Xiang, Chairman of Li Xiang, also stated that the channel will cover almost all fourth-tier cities in the next 2-3 years, with an overall strategy similar to BBA. NIO-SW also plans to expand its battery swapping "moat" to third- and fourth-tier cities and county towns.

For BMW, this year is a crucial year of transformation. In order to achieve the goal of pure electric vehicle sales accounting for one-third of total sales within three years, BMW cannot afford to fail.

BMW was once the earliest automaker to explore electric vehicles, even earlier than Tesla. In 2007, it established a dedicated electric vehicle research organization called Project i and launched two electric vehicles, the i3 (old model) and i8, in 2011. However, due to the immaturity of the domestic and international electric vehicle market and charging infrastructure, as well as the failure to gain market recognition in terms of price and range, production was subsequently halted, temporarily slowing down the exploration of electrification. But BMW seems to have regained its momentum now. In this year of setbacks and frequent pains for new forces in sales, BMW, General Motors, and EAON have seized the opportunity to leverage their resource advantages and make a comeback.

BMW is still BMW. Its "self-repair" capability and breakthrough ability have amazed the market, vowing to defend the glory of the century-old luxury brand and reclaim the throne of the king.

A thrilling script of a great counterattack is already underway.