FRANKFURT: German carmaker BMW aims to more than double the number of electric and hybrid vehicles it has sold to 500,000 by the end of 2019, CEO Harald Krueger told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche.
In 2018 alone, deliveries of electrified vehicles are to rise by a “medium double-digit percentage,” he said.
A pioneer in electric cars, BMW launched the i3 hatchback in 2013 but sales have been relatively low and management has wrestled with whether to go all-out for electrification.
But that changed in September when the Munich-based group said it would gear up for mass production of electric cars and aimed to have 12 fully electric models by 2025 with a range of up to 700 km.
The group said on Monday it had hit its target of selling 100,000 fully electric cars this year around the world, benefiting from strong demand in western Europe and the United States for models such as the i3 and the 2-series plug-in hybrid Active Tourer.
He said the automaker would nonetheless keep making and selling cars with combustion engines to help finance a gradual shift to electrified cars.
Unlike his peer Matthias Mueller, the CEO of Volkswagen, he rejected the idea of doing away with tax subsidies for diesel.
“Bearing customers in mind who bought diesels, that is unjustifiable,” Krueger said.
Mueller earlier this month called for subsidies for diesel vehicles to be shifted gradually to incentives for green cars, such as electric vehicles.
Acting Transport Minister Christian Schmidt had shot down the idea, though, saying that diesel was still needed during the transition to greener vehicles and there was therefore no reason to change tax rules.
BMW aims to have sold 500,000 hybrid, electric cars by end-2019
BMW aims to have sold 500,000 hybrid, electric cars by end-2019
Russia investigates care home deaths in new Siberian health scandal
- The state Investigative Committee said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalized
- At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation
MOSCOW: A criminal investigation into patient deaths at a neuropsychiatric care home in Siberia has found that staff failed in their duties, Russian authorities said on Thursday, in the second health scandal to hit the region this month.
The state Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, said professional lapses by staff had contributed to a mass outbreak of a viral infection that led to 46 people being hospitalized. At least three people died as a result of the illness and six other deaths were under investigation.
The care home is just outside the city of Novokuznetsk, where the deaths of nine newborn babies in the space of nine days shortly after the New Year sparked outrage across Russia and spurred a criminal investigation into negligence.
In the latest case, the Investigative Committee said staff were being questioned, medical records had been seized and forensic tests were under way to determine the cause of the infection’s spread.
The investigation is into “sanitary violations resulting in the deaths of patients.”
The regional health ministry said earlier this month it had detected 46 cases of influenza type A among a sample of 128 residents of the care home, while two more people tested positive for pneumonia.
Those who died included a 21-year-old woman with cerebral palsy and a 19-year-old man, according to regional authorities.
Ilya Seredyuk, governor of the Kuzbass region of Siberia, called the news was devastating, and said a commission formed by the regional government had been working on site since January 24.
“Materials requiring review have been sent to law enforcement agencies,” he said.
Kuzbass is a heavily industrial region of about 2.6 million people that accounts for much of Russia’s coal production.
Average life expectancy there in 2023 was about 70.2 years, well below the national average of 73.1 and compared with an average of 81.5 in the European Union.
Official data released this month shows deaths from respiratory diseases among working-age people in Kuzbass rose between 2022 and 2024, while overall mortality rates were higher and fertility rates lower than federal averages.
