Reimagining BMW During a Major Shift in the U.S. Automotive Industry

The current automotive industry is at a watershed moment: consumer preferences are shifting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovative powertrain technologies have become increasingly viable in new vehicles, and increasingly strict government regulations are forcing many brands to reevaluate their current portfolio and shift their brands focus into this new market of electric vehicles. Within the last 10 years, new start-up brands have taken a strong stance in consumers minds as the go-to for a certain class of vehicle when shopping for an EV, as opposed to what they might similarly shop for in a traditional internal combustion engine (I.C.E). Amongst all of these changing factors, BMW has fallen quite short in updating its brand in preparation for the future. BMW has traditionally stood for executive, sporty, German sedans since the brand introduced the “BMW New Class” of automobiles in 1962. For the last 3 generations of cars, about 10 years, BMW has attempted to shift its brand to a techy, luxury, executive, sedan. Unfortunately, as they enter the electric space, Tesla has a stranglehold on this market segment- and frankly produces the better car for those consumers. While they were one of the first companies to identify the need for electric vehicles, in the i3, their implementation of these ideas was so far away from this core identity of BMW that it has actually hurt their branding moving into this electric future. The goal of this thesis is to investigate these factors, the shift towards electric vehicles, and how BMW fits into this new environment. With this information, a business plan will be created that should point BMW into a direction that continues its heritage as a brand, while appealing to modern consumers and lawmakers.