Recently, BMW Group released its 2023 financial report, showing sustained growth in performance and continued investment in future mobility. Despite facing fierce competition and a complex market environment, BMW Group still achieved its 2023 fiscal year business goals as expected, with a group revenue of 155.498 billion euros.
In 2023, BMW Group delivered 2,554,183 luxury cars worldwide, a 6.4% increase compared to the previous year. In the Chinese market, 824,932 BMW and MINI cars were sold, a 4.2% increase. BMW and MINI electric cars were the main driver of business growth. BMW Group delivered over 375,000 pure electric cars to global customers in 2023, a 74.2% increase, achieving the established goal of electric car sales accounting for approximately 15% of the total sales. Including plug-in hybrid models delivered throughout the year, BMW Group sold over 560,000 new energy vehicles in 2023, a 30.5% increase. In the Chinese market, BMW Group delivered approximately 100,000 BMW pure electric cars in 2023. To continuously enhance the company’s innovation capabilities, BMW Group has maintained R&D investment at over 6 billion euros for three consecutive years. In 2023, R&D investment increased significantly to 7.538 billion euros, a 13.8% increase, accounting for about 5% of the group’s revenue. Investment is mainly focused on three areas: electric and digital development of models, the field of autonomous driving, and the development of new models, including the new generation of BMW models.
According to the plan, BMW’s new generation models will be launched in the global market by 2025, and at least 6 models will be put into production within the following 24 months. The new generation models will be domestically produced in Shenyang, China by 2026. The new generation models will have three main features: 1) a newly developed electronic and electrical architecture, as well as a new user interface and human-machine interaction concept; 2) a newly developed electric drive and battery system with high performance and significant efficiency improvement; 3) achieving a new level of circular sustainability throughout the product’s lifecycle.
In 2023, BMW’s research and development system has been further improved: the Shanghai R&D center was upgraded again in July, and the expansion project of the second phase of the Shenyang R&D center was officially put into use last year, strengthening the development and validation capabilities of BMW’s localized new energy vehicles. The facility has 19 new laboratories, 17 of which are specifically for testing new energy vehicles. Over the past three years, BMW’s R&D team in China has tripled in size, currently with over 3,000 R&D and digital talents, focusing on software development, autonomous driving, and UI/UX design. In 2023, BMW Group’s capital expenditure on factories, equipment, and fixed assets has also significantly increased, reaching 8.836 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. A large amount of investment is used in important areas related to the company’s future, such as facilities and equipment for electrification and autonomous driving, global market power battery production, and the construction of the Debrecen factory in Hungary.
Investment in China is an important part of this, including BMW’s sixth-generation power battery project and the upgrade of the existing factory in Shenyang. The sixth-generation power battery project, following BMW’s iFACTORY production strategy, has a total investment of 10 billion RMB. By 2024, BMW Group’s R&D investment and capital expenditure in the automotive business will reach their peak. R&D investment will mainly focus on electrified models, including the new generation of vehicles, as well as digital innovation inside the vehicle, such as vehicle connectivity, software stack, and autonomous driving. Capital expenditure will mainly involve factories, products, and innovative technologies.