“For example, privileged access to inner cities, free parking or a separate lane on the motorway,” he told the “Münchner Merkur”: “If you were constantly overtaken by electric cars while stuck in a traffic jam, many would certainly consider whether to switch after all.” Such preferential treatment would be an alternative to the EU’s planned ban on combustion engines. State purchase premiums as an incentive would also not make sense in the long term, said Nedeljković.
Despite criticism of Germany as a location, BMW is continuing to ramp up production here: “We will build more than a million cars in Germany this year,” the board announced. Last year, BMW produced 936,000 cars in Dingolfing, Munich, Regensburg and Leipzig, 729,000 in China and 411,000 in the USA. Worldwide, the figure was 2.66 million.
“We are currently experiencing an exodus of industrial companies”
Over the past five years, the group has invested five billion euros in the German plants, said Nedeljković. They are profitable. “But one thing is certain: competition is becoming increasingly difficult at our home base.” The reasons are bureaucracy, expensive energy and high location costs. The industry also needs a solid road network, a reliable railway and digital infrastructure.
“However, we are currently experiencing an exodus of industrial companies, especially small and medium-sized companies and suppliers. What we actually need is exactly the opposite, namely an establishment of new technologies,” said the BMW board member.
The BMW production boss also criticized EU plans to calculate a company’s carbon footprint for battery production based on the electricity mix of the entire country. This would penalize companies like BMW that invest in purchasing green electricity: “Our carbon footprint would then be assessed using the German electricity mix, including coal-fired electricity. That would massively worsen our balance on paper,” said Nedeljković. “This would remove the incentive to strive for production that is as climate-neutral as possible.”
