LOS ANGELES ― Having led the successful debut of the i Series over the past year, BMW sales chief Ian Robertson on Wednesday stressed that sheer driving pleasure will remain the core of the German luxury brand even in the era of electric mobility.

“The easiest way to improve CO2 emissions is reducing horsepower, but that wouldn’t be for BMW,” he said in an interview with a group of international reporters on the sideline of the LA Auto Show that kicked off Tuesday.

“Concepts like sheer driving pleasure and ultimate driving machine are also replicable on electric cars or smaller four- and three-cylinder engines. That’s the part of our core strategy.”

Since its debut in November, the BMW i3, the carmaker’s first full-electric car, sold more than 12,000 vehicles globally. Sales of the i8 plug-in hybrid sports cars reached some 360 units. Robertson, a member of the BMW Group management board, is the driving force behind the staggering success.

“With the i3, we proved that electric mobility can be good-looking and great to drive as well as sustainable,” he said. “We are now on track to hit 2 million car sales this year, a record in our history.”

About the carmaker’s future sales strategy, Robertson hinted at rolling out more i cars in Asia from next year. This year, the carmaker has focused more on Europe and U.S. markets due to supply constraints.

He admitted that government infrastructure, including charging stations, is still in sufficient regardless of the size and location of the cities globally.

“But many of the things that have been holding back EVs are on the verge of being solved, relatively quickly and less expensively,” he said, predicting a breakthrough is imminent in battery technologies that would allow economies of scale for carmakers.

BMW has recently invested considerable resources into sustainable growth on environmental, social and business aspects.

On Wednesday, he also attended the unveiling event of the Motorsport versions of the X5 and X6 cars during the LA motor show.

The new driving machines come equipped with 555 horsepower turbocharged V8 engine ― the most powerful BMW engine ever. Despite the enhanced performance, they have reduced fuel consumption by 20 percent compared to the previous models.

“Sustainability is not just in the way our cars are performed. We also apply it to our production site and dealerships and encourage our suppliers to take the same steps,” he said.

“And that has allowed BMW a competitive advantage at the moment.”

By Lee Ji-yoon, Korea Herald correspondent
(jylee@heraldcorp.com)