This is how BMW proves that electric cars are right for you

A new feature of the application allows drivers of combustion-powered cars to find out how their journeys would have gone with a battery-powered car.

Photo by: BMW

By: Francesco Barontini

Aug 16, 2024 at 4:40am ET

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That's the beauty of over-the-air upgrades. You buy a car, you use it for a few months (or a few years) and then, thanks to a new version of the software, you download a function that didn't exist when you bought it. With the latest OTA update, BMW is introducing an interesting feature on all its cars, (which must be equipped with operating system 7 or later, that aims to bring drivers closer to e-mobility.

In short, by analysing real-life driving data, it tells drivers of a model with an internal combustion engine how the journey would have gone had it been made in a zero-emission car. All the data is also available on the application that you download onto your mobile phone.

Direct ICE-BEV comparison

The reason why the Munich-based company has introduced this new option is fairly obvious. It allows you to find the answers to questions such as: "Does an electric car meet my needs?", "Can I continue to get around as before driving a battery-powered car, or will it be more inconvenient?".

The new feature, as BMW explains, is intended to show those who still drive a petrol or diesel car that the range of its electric cars is more than sufficient to travel in most cases without even having to stop to recharge. To do this, it is enriched with statistics and data analysing the most frequent journeys, home-to-work journeys and daily journeys of each driver.

BMW presents a new function that lets you compare what an electric journey would be like.

BMW

Once you've reached 200 journeys, or 2,000 km (1,243 miles), you can see how many times you'll need to recharge the battery before reaching your destination, and how many times, conversely, you'll reach your destination on a single charge.

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The benefits of electric on the smartphone

Dirk Wiedmann, Senior Vice President Sales at the Bavarian company, explains: "Today, electric vehicles can perfectly meet the everyday needs of many of our customers, but most of them have not yet tried them out and therefore regard them with a certain amount of fear."

By using the app to simulate zero-emission mobility on the basis of their real-life journeys, showing remaining range, ease of recharging and the need to stop at charging stations, BMW wants to show that electric cars are not frightening and even offer undeniable advantages.