BMW isn’t interested in making electric cars that can travel 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.
According to Frank Weber, BMW’s head of development, the idea simply doesn’t make sense.
"Why Would We?"
Speaking to Automotive News, Weber dismissed the push for extreme range in EVs, arguing that building bigger and bigger batteries isn’t the solution.
“Why would we? You can’t just build batteries with larger and larger capacities. Because then electric cars will no longer make sense,” he stated.
Weber insists that BMW’s customers are already happy with the 400-500 km range provided by current models, adding that data shows most drivers rarely go beyond a few hundred kilometers at a time.
Rather than chasing extreme range, BMW is focusing on efficiency.
The company’s upcoming electric models will be built on the Neue Klasse platform, which promises a 30% increase in energy density.
This, BMW claims, will allow its next-generation EVs to charge 300 km worth of range in just 10 minutes—though the company has yet to prove this in real-world conditions.
Weber argues that pushing for ultra-long-range electric cars would be wasteful and harmful to the environment. Larger batteries mean more resource extraction, heavier cars, and increased energy consumption.
Solid-state batteries, which many consider the next breakthrough in EV technology, are still at least two to three generations away, according to Weber. Until then, automakers are focusing on maximizing current battery technology—partly because they’ve already invested billions into it.
In other words, better technology exists, but consumers will have to wait while companies recoup their investments.
