Just days after showing over their incredibly powerful fully electric 5 Series dubbed the Power BEV, the German manufacturer has come out swinging at the electric movement.
Despite the world turning towards electrification, BMW is standing firm with their internal combustion engines, saying that they will last another three decades.
Speaking on the matter, BMW chief technical officer Klaus Frolich says: "The shift to electrification is over-hyped. Battery-electric vehicles cost more in terms of raw materials for batteries. This will continue and could eventually worsen as demand for these raw materials increases."
Interestingly, he thinks that diesel engines will have another two decades of life, and petrol engines will survive for another decade on top of that.
"A best assumption of 30 per cent of electrified sales by 2025 means that at least 80 per cent of our vehicles will have an internal combustion engine," Frolich said when he spoke to Automotive News Europe.
“We see areas without a recharging infrastructure such as Russia, the Middle East and the western, internal part of China so they will rely on gasoline engines for another 10 to 15 years."
While they don't see the ICE engine being phased out any time soon, some popular configurations are on the way out, including the iconic V12 that famously powered the McLaren F1.
Despite these claims, BMW has recently revealed that they're two years ahead of the production schedule on EVs and 25 models will be on sale by 2023.