At the ongoing 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, Klaus Fröhlich – Member of BMW’s Board of Management has announced that BMW will produce its plug-in hybrid, electric and internal combustion engine vehicles around a common platform.
After that, BMW I Brand Chief Robert Irlinger has once again confirmed that from 2020 onwards, all BMW models will sit on a flexible platform which is able to adapt to numerous powertrain and drive configurations.
All BMW models will sit on a flexible platform
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The reason leading to this BMW’s decision is mainly due to the uncertain future of electric and combustion-engine vehicles in terms of purchase and fuel prices, emissions regulations, battery technology, inter-city driving restrictions and so on.
As its name indicates, the new architecture will be so flexible that it can fully support from front-wheel, rear-wheel to all-wheel drive systems. Depending one each vehicle, the company will make small different changes to the architecture. Moreover, suspension mounting points and crash structure will remain unchanged.
Buyers could bring home a pure electric, plug-in hybrid or combustion-engine models of any BMW
If BMW actually generalizes this move, it can significantly decrease expenses on production. Further, this also means buyers could bring home a pure electric, plug-in hybrid or combustion-engine models of any BMW, theoretically of course.
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