Think the issue is the innovators and disrupters left and continue to leave and what is left is an echo-chamber of empty suits and marketing goons that set the tone from the top. I can almost guarantee that nothing groundbreaking or game changing is occurring when key executives leave for a Chinese startup and then the iNext program is announced all of a sudden (glaring admission that beyond the failed i-cars there was nothing to follow). Execs and engineers seek out the companies with the best prospects, they don't leave them.
BMW is not disrupting anything in the automotive world these days. This was not the case before 2007, when BMW made iconic models one after the next, that not only disrupted the automotive industry, it invented new categories!
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Originally Posted by Jblack4083
The financials that go into statements like these are much more complex than that. P/L numbers can be affected by factors such as capital expenditure (CapEx) and research and development (R&D). In many cases, the real per vehicle profits are reduced because CapEx and R&D costs are spread out across the number of vehicles sold. Once again its much more complex but in its most basic forms that's what a "loss" per vehicle usually looks like.
2021 does seem overly far out that I would expect BMW is preparing something innovative or disruptive to bring to market. A firm with as many minds as BMW cannot possibly think arriving to the party multiple years late is a good idea... Unless they were possibly waiting to gauge the feasibility of it. Either way, they would need something innovative or disruptive to make it worth it.
Possibly we will see some developments related to the charging infrastructure that will be innovative? Who knows.
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