BMW electric vehicle update

As the electric vehicle market hots up, BMW South Africa has unveiled a solar carport for EV charging. Solar powered EV charging systems are not necessarily new but to see BMW rolling out its own version from July 2016 will certainly put some pressure on competitors in the sector. Surely solar powered charging systems and electric cars are a match made in heaven?

Full article: BMW South Africa Unveils Solar Carport For EV Charging

[B]BMW EV sales in US continue to grow[/B]

BMW has revealed US sales figures for April and while overall sales of BMW vehicles are down there has been an increase in the number of BMW hybrids and EV sales. Just over 2,500 BMW electric vehicles were sold in the US out of a figure of 17,786 for all BMW vehicles. The electric vehicle figure is 15% of total sales which is around one in seven of all BMWs sold in the USA.

Full article: One in seven new BMWs sold in the US is an electric vehicle | Ars Technica

[B]BMW aims for EV autonomous vehicle in 2021[/B]

Autonomous vehicles are certainly the in thing in the electric car market and BMW is already working on its flagship release for 2021. As we highlighted above, BMW is constantly increasing sales of hybrid and electric vehicles around the world and the introduction of an autonomous vehicle powered by electric will certainly put pressure on the likes of Tesla. The company has also announced a 50% increase in battery capacity for its award-winning BMW i3 which further strengthens the company’s position in the US EV market.

Full article: BMW’s 2021 flagship to be a self-driving EV tech maestro - SlashGear

How many companies are actually making viable EV charging stations around the world at the moment?

I will do some digging on this but I think you will be surprised - how many will survive is another matter altogether. This will be a little like mobile phone service providers - there were hundreds in the early days but as the market grew we saw many of the smaller ones eaten up or go under leaving a smaller number of bigger, more influential, companies.