e-cars profitable at least as conventional vehicles: BMW

German automaker BMW is earning no less money with its electric cars than with its petrol and diesel vehicles, according to the company boss, Oliver Zipse, reported dpa.

He presented the first of a new generation of vehicles on Sunday.

Producing them is more expensive, the costs are higher but "the assumption that combustion engines are always more profitable than electric cars is completely wrong," Zipse said of the vehicle in the "Neue Klasse" on show in Munich.

"We make money with every electric car today, and that will be even more the case with the Neue Klasse," Zipse said: "It will be very profitable."

Unlike its current models, the new generation of vehicles sees BMW place its electric cars on a platform developed specifically for e-cars. The carmaker is displacing the vehicles at the IAA Mobility trade fair.

The first models have 30% more range and 30% higher charging speed and new software, and are to be launched from the end of 2025.

The vehicle's architecture is completely geared to the electric drive, and as the recycling of all components is already planned at the development stage, the cars are also more environmentally friendly, BMW says.

As a vision vehicle, BMW did not present an SUV, but a mid-size sedan the size of its current 3 Series.

However, the first new class model is to be an SUV, made at the new BMW plant in Debrecen, Hungary. At almost the same time, the second model will start production at the main plant in Munich in early 2026, followed by other cars based on the same architecture, Zipse said.