Author: Jiang Gusong.
Introduction:
Since its inception in 1972, the BMW 5 Series has sold more than 10 million units worldwide.
As a combination of luxury business and sporty handling, the success of the 5 Series has been fully proven in many countries around the world. Among them, China is BMW's largest single market in the world, and since its domestic production in 2003, the cumulative sales of the BMW 5 Series in the Chinese market have exceeded 2 million units.
Gao Xiang, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, said:
The success of the BMW 5 Series is due to the close integration of the BMW Group with the development of Chinese society. Today, the all-new BMW 5 Series is the latest proof of BMW's vision for future mobility with a breakthrough innovation in the field of digital intelligence. ”
On November 17, 2023, the all-new BMW 5 Series Long Wheelbase Edition made its world premiere at the Guangzhou Auto Show. At the same time, with the support of BMW's electrification strategy, the innovative pure electric BMW i5, an electric version that inherits the "mantle" of the BMW 5 Series, was also unveiled on the same stage.
They both belong to the 5 Series family, and although they share the same gene, the two models show different personalities.
With the debut of the i5, BMW has also kicked off the next product strategy in China.
1. BMW 5 Series has dual lines of oil and electricity
As of the third quarter of 2023, the sales volume of C-segment sedans in the Chinese market was 29530,000 units, accounting for 5% of the total market sales in the third quarter1%。Among them, the sales volume of C-class pure electric models was 5650,000, accounting for 19 percent of the C-class market sales1%。From the data level, in China's new energy market, there is huge room for growth in C-class cars. The demand for C-class sedan products in the Chinese market must take into account the two scenarios of business administration and family main car. 
From a business administration point of view, products in this market must have a very strong brand image to meet the social identity required by car owners for business purposes. At the same time, in terms of model design, the C-class sedan must highlight a considerable "sense of luxury" and "sense of quality", and the body size needs to be stretched and generous enough to echo the social image of the owner. It can be seen from the current luxury fuel C-class top three and E" that the length of luxury C-class sedans is generally about 5 meters, and the wheelbase is more than 3 meters. At the same time, users with business and administrative needs generally assume the role of "pillar" in the family. The evolution of this role into one's own car requires the C-Class sedan to meet the needs of the family's main car on time. In the scenario of family cars, the daily needs of family members, such as daily schooling, commuting, and short-distance travel for the whole family, also have high requirements for the interior space of the C-class sedan, especially the rear space. If the space problem can be optimized by the size of the model, in terms of "brand image", it is still an insurmountable mountain for many products. And this is the main reason why domestic new energy products have not been able to effectively cut into this market segment. However, for BMW, the past market performance of the 5 Series model is enough to prove that this product has gained a firm foothold in the C-segment luxury sedan market. In addition to inheriting the iconic shapes such as the "Angel Eye" headlights, the "kidney" shape of the front grille, and the "Holmes Corner" of the C-pillar, the front and window lines of the all-new BMW 5 Series have also been greatly raised, further enhancing the sportiness of the whole car. Although it is a representative model of business executive, in the Chinese market, the current BMW 5 Series consumer group has dropped to 34 years old, and the younger design is further in line with the changing characteristics of the Chinese market. At the same time, in terms of interior, in addition to the integrated floating curved screen and the enveloping interactive light belt, the rear 31-inch screen of BMW's flagship model 7 Series is also applied to this 5 Series long wheelbase product, further improving the 5 Series family car scene. As a customized model for the Chinese market, the all-new BMW 5 Series Long Wheelbase Edition also fully meets the needs of Chinese consumers in terms of interior space. Compared to the current model, the new BMW 5 Series Long Wheelbase has been lengthened from 5,106 mm to 5,175 mm, the width has been increased from 1,868 mm to 1,900 mm, and the height has been increased from 1,500 mm to 1,520 mm. With the blessing of the BMW brand, the all-new 5 Series retains the sense of luxury in design, while innovating in a sporty appearance. At the same time, the expansion of the model size has further increased the interior space, successfully adding a new highlight to the new 5 Series in the Chinese market. The evolution of the 5 Series can be summed up as follows: Exploring inwards and changing outwards. The emergence of the i5 of the same family will help BMW complete the "C-class puzzle" of the new energy product camp, firmly hold the market foundation of the luxury C-class fuel car, and will also set a new standard for C-class pure electric products. 
At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, Shao Bin, Senior Vice President of Marketing at BMW Brilliance, told **: "We have a strong desire to build a market of more than 400,000 electric vehicles. Ask me what car I bought for more than 200,000 yuan, and I will also buy an electric car. But when it comes to a higher ** range, customers will want a business feeling, a very good design, a social status, a customer's taste, and the comprehensive ability of the car to make people feel safe and comfortable. "In terms of body size, the innovative pure electric BMW i5 has a body length of 5175mm and a wheelbase of 3105mm, which follows the dimensions of the new BMW 5 Series with a long wheelbase version. At the same time, in terms of power and handling, the i5 adopts the fifth-generation BMW eDrive electric drive technology, with a range of up to 700 kilometers. The M Performance version of the BMW i5 M60 has a maximum output torque of 820Nm and a 0-100 acceleration of only 3 under the Sport Boost mode8 seconds. In the context of electrification, the pursuit of "performance" by luxury brands is not limited to driving scenarios. In terms of energy supplement, BMW still maintains its "performance" advantage. According to the BMW Group, the innovative all-electric BMW i5 uses the Group's latest charging technology to support high-power charging services. In August this year, BMW officially released the BMW Super Charging Station, which supports up to 600kW charging power for high-power charging piles. Within three months, BMW opened 10 supercharging stations in nine cities in China. By the end of this year, the BMW Group expects to build around 50 supercharging stations in China. At the same time, in the field of private charging, the BMW Group will also launch the **DC smart charging wallbox next year, which supports up to 22kW charging power and shortens the home charging time. With the BMW i3 and BMW iX3 having completed the first phase of BMW's new energy market offensive, Chinese consumers have a basic understanding of BMW's pure electric products. With the 5 Series model, the i5 will open up new growth space for BMW's C-segment pure electric market. From January to October 2023, BMW's sales of BEVs in the Chinese market increased by more than 200% year-on-year to nearly 80,000 units.
The reason for maintaining a strong growth momentum in the new energy market is the gradual maturity of the BMW Group's localization strategy in China.
Gao Xiang, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, summed it up:
In the past two years, we have a lot of new products. Each of them is more exciting than the other, and each one is more Chinese than the other - born because of China, and changed for Chinese customers. ”
This sentence is not a simple official summary, but behind it is the scale of the BMW Group's investment in the Chinese market.
1.BMW's "Chinese" layout
Since 2010, the BMW Group's Shenyang production base has received an investment of more than 100 billion yuan, making it the world's largest production base.
In April 2022, the product upgrade project of BMW Brilliance Dadong Plant was completedIn June of the same year, the Tiexi factory Lida plant was also officially opened. Up to now, the annual production capacity of the BMW Group's Shenyang production base has reached 830,000 units. Among them, the Tiexi plant Lida plant is the global production base of BMW i3.
The integration of R&D, procurement, and production also makes BMW's new energy products have more obvious Chinese characteristics.
BMW Shenyang R&D Center).
In addition to large-scale investment in fixed assets, the BMW Group has established the largest R&D and innovation network outside Germany in China, with locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing.
The functions of these four R&D centers in China are also different, among them:
The main functions of BMW's R&D Center in Beijing are vehicle quality testing and model certification, and the localization strategy is formulated according to the needs of Chinese customers
BMW ArcherMind Information Technology (Nanjing) is BMW's largest digital vehicle software R&D center in Asia, responsible for software development in the fields of autonomous driving systems, maps and navigation, intelligent voice interaction, in-vehicle operating systems, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. BMW Nanjing ArcherMind software team will increase to 500 people in 2023, with software development capabilities for full-stack intelligent connected vehicles
BMW's Shenyang R&D Center is adjacent to the Power Battery Center, which is mainly responsible for the development of new energy vehicles, quality control of production models and localized production support. The facility includes 19 new laboratories, 17 of which are dedicated to testing new energy vehicles, to strengthen BMW's capabilities in the full process development and validation of localized new energy vehicles
BMW's Shanghai R&D Center is mainly responsible for the research and development of innovative technologies and creative design, as well as the application of digitalization, including autonomous driving, connected driving and application APP
To date, more than 3,200 BMW employees in China are engaged in innovation-related work in areas such as R&D, digitalization, and electrification.
2.BMW's "China Chain".
In addition to local R&D and production, BMW's leading role in the local industrial chain is also strong.
In 2022, BMW Brilliance purchased more than 73 billion yuan in parts nationwide. At present, the BMW Group has more than 460 parts suppliers in China.
In addition to bringing revenue growth to the top chain enterprises, BMW's quality control in parts has also fostered a large number of excellent Chinese enterprises. Among them, as the leader of BMW's new energy chain, CATL once concluded: "Without BMW, there would be no CATL today." ”
In addition to CATL, EVE and Envision Power have also received orders for BMW's large cylindrical batteries, and the above three battery companies will work with BMW to lay out several battery factories around the world. It can be expected that under the driving role of BMW, China's power battery companies will run to a new height in the international market.
According to the BMW Group, the BMW sixth-generation power battery project under construction in Shenyang has a total investment of 10 billion yuan.
According to BMW's information disclosure, the sixth-generation battery will be installed in BMW's next-generation models in 2025.
Compared with the fifth-generation battery, BMW's sixth-generation power battery has improved in many aspects.
BMW's 6th generation cylindrical battery).
In terms of material innovation, the nickel content of the cathode of the sixth-generation cylindrical battery cell is higher, the cobalt content is reduced, and the silicon content in the anode is increased. As a result, the energy density of the sixth-generation battery cells has been increased by more than 20%, and the cruising range has been increased by up to 30%.
The voltage platform for the battery, powertrain and charging technology of the "next generation" model will also be increased to 800V, thus optimizing the energy supply to the DC fast charging station. A current of 500Ah can greatly increase the charging power. As a result, the charging time of the power battery from 10 to 80% will be reduced by 30%.
At the same time, the BMW Group said that the manufacturing cost of the sixth-generation battery will be reduced by 50% compared to the fifth-generation battery. As the most expensive single component in the new energy vehicle, effective cost control will help BMW models to develop more competitive market pricing.
Under BMW's "Circular Sustainability" model, CO2 emissions from the manufacturing of the sixth-generation battery will also be reduced by 60%. Behind this, there are two major initiatives of BMW's sustainable development in China.
In terms of green power, BMW's Shenyang production base and 37 non-production sites across the country have all achieved 100% renewable power supply.
In 2022, the installed capacity of solar photovoltaic power generation at the Shenyang production base reached 744MW, an increase of 139 over the previous year2%。In terms of green power trading, in September 2021, BMW Brilliance reached 27With a green electricity trading volume of 800 million kWh, the green electricity procurement volume ranks first in the country.
In terms of batteries, in 2022, BMW and Huayou Cycle, a subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, reached a cooperation on closed-loop and cascadal utilization of power battery materials, realizing the closed-loop of raw materials for domestic electric vehicle power batteries for the first time, and providing the decomposed raw materials (nickel, cobalt, lithium, etc.) to BMW's battery suppliers for the production of new power batteries and realizing the closed-loop management of power battery raw materials.
3. Conclusion
From the fuel luxury brand in the past to the new energy luxury brand today, BMW, as a century-old car company, is not an "elephant turn" in the promotion of electrification strategy.
At present, the BMW Group sells pure electric models in the Chinese market, including the i3, i4, i7, ix1, ix3, and ix models, and the addition of the i5 marks that BMW's pure electric products cover almost all major market segments.
With the support of local R&D and production, BMW will continue to make achievements in the fuel era and continue to maintain its longevity in the new energy market.
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