BMW has toyed with the idea of a pickup truck (or a ute) plenty of times in the past, but in the latest frustrating tease for a Bimmer with a bed, the head of product management for BMW M claimed an electric truck would be easy to build.
That exec is Daniel Schmidt, who was interviewed by Australia’s Motoring magazine:
“First we decide what’s the right concept for us, and so far we are not at all in pick-up trucks, for example,” the auto executive told carsales.
“But if you would think from the other way around, like where can I put as much battery cells in with a certain freedom of height, then a pick-up truck would be a good concept for electromobility, for sure.”
Schmidt is basically just saying electric vehicles require a lot of room for the batteries, and pickup trucks—some of the largest vehicles on the road—make great candidates for electric vehicles because it’s easier to fit huge volumes of energy storage. With BEVs, the more battery you can fit, there’s potential for a better performance tradeoff despite the additional weight.
But Schmidt continued:
Schmidt said the EV pick-up concept has genuine potential, but implied that BMW M prefers a challenge, observing that simpler development pathways are not among the primary criteria to achieving the green light.
“Because you have the wheelbase, the length of the car, freedom below the body, you can cool it easily, but we will not decide for a body type just because it’s easier.
But this probably is just an executive providing an example of the benefits of EVs. And it’s an Australian interview—of course they’re concerned about trucks and utes.
All of this would be very exciting if I believed that there was even the slightest chance in a million years of BMW letting its M division engineer an electric pickup truck. They’ve just made a great case for it, if they want to take on Rivian, the Tesla Cybertruck, Workhorse, or the other EV startups giving Americans the tantalising tall trucks with torque.