BMW app to encourage drivers to consider EVs

A new feature to the My BMW app will inform drivers of the company’s internal combustion engined cars how manageable their journeys would have been in an electric vehicle.

BMW say that the apps’ new Electric Vehicle Analysis offers ‘a decision-making tool for switching from combustion engine to electric power.’

The new function allows customers who drive an ICE model to see how well an electric model would suit their own driving needs.

To begin, the driver needs to select one of the company’s EV models in the app to use as a point of comparison with their current vehicle. 

Once the ICE car has made journeys (over at least 2,000km), the app with let the driver know how many of those journeys could have been made on a single charge of the selected EV. 

Clearly, this function is designed to battle the idea of range-anxiety and other concerns drivers may have about the practicality of switching to an all-electric car. For the simulation, the app uses the real-world driving data for the combustion-engined model in question, as generated by BMW’s My Trips function.

BMW plan to upgrade the function in the future to expand the reach of the analysis, adding evaluations of the time vehicles are not in use and of long-distance journeys, along with information on charging facilities and the time required for charging.

There are currently over 13 million drivers using the app globally.

Dirk Wiedmann, Senior Vice President Sales Steering and Strategy, Digitalisation said: ‘Electric vehicles can already be incorporated perfectly into the daily routine of many customers – it’s just that the majority of them haven’t tried it yet.

‘Our app’s Electric Vehicle Analysis helps our customers to make an informed judgement in their choice of drive system.’