- BMW is not giving up on combustion-powered cars, despite investing billions in an all-new EV platform.
- The German automaker bets on powertrain diversity for the foreseeable future.
- That’s because not all regions across the world are ready for a full-on EV transition yet.
The days of automakers boasting about the demise of the combustion engine are over. Several brands have toned down their electric car ambitions in the last 12 months, saying that the previously announced targets are hard to achieve considering today’s shifting preferences.
BMW has never committed to becoming an all-electric automaker, but now it seems more vocal than ever when it comes to keeping the combustion engine alive. “ICE and combustion will never disappear. Never,” said Jochen Goller, member of the board of management of BMW AG for customer, brands and sales, in an interview with Autocar India.
The 2026 BMW iX3 is an impressive new electric crossover based on the Neue Klasse platform.
Photo by: BMW
That’s a tough stance for a company that has poured billions of dollars into an all-new electric platform dubbed Neue Klasse, which will underpin a slew of upcoming EVs globally. Moreover, BMW has had reasonable success with its EVs in Europe and the United States, so it can be hard to grasp why the German automaker is planning on keeping combustion engines alive for the indefinite future.
It all comes down to how different markets around the world react to electric cars. That’s why BMW will go down the path of a diversified powertrain portfolio. Besides the Neue Klasse EV platform, the company will create a new, combustion-only platform that’s dedicated to entry-level cars.
EV adoption in markets like India, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe is far from what accountants would like to see, so gasoline is the only way to go in some regions if the company wants to make money.
Then, a third platform will come about that will underpin larger SUVs and sedans. This architecture will allow BMW to sell variations of the same model using different powertrains in different markets, including all-electric, plug-in hybrid and traditional combustion.
For what it’s worth, BMW has promised that half of its annual sales will come from EVs by 2030. This means that gas engines in BMWs–in one form or another–won’t go anywhere well into the next decade, despite the European Union standing firm on its commitment to ban the sales of new cars with emissions from 2035.
There’s still some wiggle room there, though, with some reports suggesting that the EU could allow the sale of plug-in hybrids and extended-range EVs after the 2035 cutoff, giving automakers some breathing room to get up to speed with what consumers want. The charging infrastructure would also stand to benefit from the move, being allowed more time for expansion. The question is: at what environmental cost?
