This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 21, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: BMW Malaysia Sdn Bhd (BMW Group Malaysia) delivered over 2,300 units of the BMW 330e, BMW X5 xDrive40e and BMW 740Le in the first half (1H) of 2017 — its best-ever performance for its portfolio of BMW iPerformance vehicles.

This mirrors the ongoing success of the BMW Group for its electro mobility vehicles worldwide.

“The growth and take-up rate of the BMW iPerformance vehicles here indicates that Malaysians are ready for the [latest] technology in the automotive industry and the BMW hybrid vehicles with eDrive technology are the best offerings for customers to get into vehicles that are not only dynamic and beautifully designed, but are also responsible and frugal in terms of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions,” BMW Group Malaysia managing director and chief executive officer Han Sang Yun said in a statement yesterday.

The German premium carmaker said since the introduction of the first BMW hybrid vehicle with eDrive technology with the BMW X5 xDrive 40e at the end of June 2016, it had delivered over 3,200 units of the model in the country, charting a share of over 44% of its total volume mix in the country.

BMW Group Malaysia said this number is the highest in the world, as the current world average is at 3% while in the Nordic countries, the figure is at 14%.

The sales performance of the BMW 330e, meanwhile, has been successful in that more than 60% of the BMW 3 Series delivered in the country currently are the BMW iPerformance models.

Over 40% of the BMW 7 Series variants delivered were of the recently introduced BMW 740Le xDrive.

Han also said to date, there are more than 200 ChargEV stations available nationwide. The target is 25,000 ChargEV stations by 2020.

In October last year, BMW Group Malaysia had partnered with Malaysian Green Technology Corp (GreenTech Malaysia) to offer the carmaker’s new plug-in hybrid vehicles customers in the country access to GreenTech Malaysia’s ChargeNow mobility services via the ChargEV platform.

With ChargEV playing a pivotal role in encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, BMW Group Malaysia said it is also expanding the accessibility of charging stations through its network of authorised dealerships.