Like some overseas automaker bosses, Zipse expressed frustration with the Inflation Reduction Act that ties EV tax credit to North American manufacturing and sourcing of key elements and uncooked supplies.
He believes the legislation ideas the benefit to U.S. automakers with extra expansive home manufacturing and provider networks.
“We would ask for a level playing field as long as you are serving an American customer,” Zipse mentioned. “Europe does not make any differentiation where the car comes from. You get an incentive or tax break if you sell a car in Europe.”
In some methods, he mentioned, BMW is already as American as apple pie.
The luxurious automaker operates an meeting plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina — its largest on the planet — which employs greater than 11,000 folks. The 7 million-square-foot manufacturing hub stamped out greater than 416,000 crossovers final 12 months, with about 40 p.c of them exported to world markets.
“For the past eight years, we have been the largest exporter in value from the United States to the rest of the world — more than any American manufacturer does,” Zipse mentioned. “We are an American producer 100 percent.”
BMW is now plowing $1.7 billion into constructing a brand new era of electrical automobiles in South Carolina. Production of BMW’s Neue Klasse platform EVs will start there mid-decade together with battery pack meeting.
“If we put that big investment into the country and we would not be part of the IRA umbrella, that would be a disappointment,” Zipse mentioned. “When a level playing field is disturbed or at risk, then it becomes for politicians a dangerous thing because there is always a backlash.”
Source: europe.autonews.com
