Dr. Hamid Haqparwar is an automotive professional with extensive international background. He started his career at BMW Group headquarter and has held different senior management roles within BMW since then. Here is what he has to say about the future of the automotive industry.
How would you define your outlook on where the auto industry is headed in the years to come?
The industry is facing a radical shift across 4 key areas: Electrification, Automated Driving, Connectivity and Car Sharing.
Our e-mobility journey began when our bookend models – the BMW i3 and BMW i8 – were launched during the BMW i 1.0 era. Currently, our BMW i 2.0 era has already begun.
In keeping with the motto E-MOBILITY IS THE NEW NORMAL, vehicles will be able to do much more than just drive electric in the future. Over the next few years, the BMW Group will be concentrating not only on strengthening sustainable mobility, but also on expanding additional technological competencies. Highly autonomous and partially autonomous vehicles will be key technologies for future mobility. Connecting people, vehicles and services plays an increasingly important role and is impacting all areas. Even the design has to reflect these new fields of innovation, by creating a new look for sheer driving pleasure.
These visions will go into series production in the new BMW iNEXT from 2021. The first highly autonomous vehicle in the BMW fleet combines a future-proof, scalable and modular system with ground-breaking innovations. Using high-precision maps, sensors, cloud technology and artificial intelligence, the vehicle is in constant communication with the driver and their surroundings. As the technological spearhead of the BMW Group, the BMW i brand will continue to open up new technologies and services relating to mobility.
The BMW iNEXT takes individual premium mobility to a level previously unheard of. This car will set new standards with highly autonomous driving and digital connectivity, as well as its futuristic design and intelligent lightweight construction. Fitted with the next and newest generation of electric drive trains, the BMW iNEXT offers customers a new and fascinating mobility experience, where the technology remains in the background, virtually out of sight. Vehicle functions can also be operated via surfaces, e.g. by touching the wood in the centre console or the Jacquard cloth of the rear seating. In this way, vehicle operation is completely geared towards the driver’s needs. This will be an important element in every new BMW Group model going forward.
Also, for today‘s generation of drivers, a vehicle is a lot more than just transportation – it is an extension of their identity or even a status symbol. In a market as transient and diverse as Dubai, we have found that consumers also became hesitant to be tied down and appreciate greater flexibility for their mobility needs. With BMW Leasing we offer a mobility option that helps customers to get the vehicle they want in a way that suits their lifestyles.
With all these changes happening within the automotive space, how do you see this impacting the luxury car segment?
Customers today expect more from a luxury brand than just a premium product – they expect a premium experience too. And with the systematic expansion of our model line-up in the luxury class, our customers at BMW Group can experience just that.
Even though the industry is shifting to electric vehicles and autonomous driving, the luxurious experience will still be present in our models. Personal mobility is on the verge of some big changes. Areas such as autonomous driving, electrification and ever-expanding connectivity enable a whole new range of in-vehicle experiences. Drivers will have more and more freedom to decide how they wish to use their time during a journey in their vehicle.
Our BMW iNEXT is a great example! It will offer a luxurious interior and be a place where people can use their ‘Favourite Space’ to unwind and relax and also enhance their quality of life! Its appearance is confident, elegant and modern and the modern design theme continues inside the vehicle to create a relaxed atmosphere. It drives fully electrically, is highly automated and has full connectivity.
Are you finding that movement from the bigger technology players (Google, Apple, etc.) are having an impact on the auto industry of late, both from a consumer standpoint, and from wanting to get into the self-driving car game?
BMW and MINI vehicles are being transformed into additional touchpoints for the customer, just as a smartphone is already. Together with automated driving, the systematic expansion of connectivity enroute to a digital, emission-free future is one of the key fields of action for the BMW Group as it seeks to drive the transformation of the mobility sector as part of its NUMBER ONE > NEXT strategy.
The whole industry’s shift towards future mobility means that we are seeing new market entrants by brands that were not necessarily in the automotive realm previously. We always welcome healthy competition as it inspires innovation across the industry. As a brand with over 100 years of history, we have experience in facing and adapting to such similar industry fluctuations. Our current model offensive and our investment in the future as an automotive tech company are the right answers for this.
On the self-driving topic, how do you see autonomous driving impacting the luxury segment in the long run?
BMW Group has also long been a pioneer in highly automated and autonomous driving. The latest proof of this is the BMW iNEXT Vision Vehicle. This will be our next major milestone – setting trends and standards for future models across all our brands. You’ll be able to buy the iNEXT from 2021. In the same year, we will also be launching a test fleet of 500 iNEXT vehicles on the roads – all of them fully autonomous and already capable of Level 4.
And autonomous driving can do so much more: For one thing, there will be virtually no more accidents. That, in itself, is reason enough to research and invest in this technology! We are analysing possible critical driving situations – on the road and through virtual simulation: 240 million test kilometres in total so far. That’s equivalent to driving around the earth 6,000 times.
However, not everyone has the opportunity nor the desire to drive fully electric at this point in time. That is why we offer plug-in hybrids with both a combustion engine and an electric drive train. You can get around emission-free, and drive economically over long distances as well. That’s good news for the environment, as reputable studies show. E-mobility is also a lot of fun, virtually silent with amazing acceleration. 2019 is our year of the plug-in hybrid, with the BMW 3 Series, the X3, X5 and the 7 Series. They all come with our fourth-generation battery and electric engine technology, with an extended electric range up to 80 kilometres.
We like to set ourselves very ambitious goals.
- By the end of 2019, we aim to have over 500,000 plug-in hybrids and electric models on roads worldwide.
- By 2025, we will have more than 25 electrified models – half of them pure electric.
I do not believe it would be wise, from a business perspective, to put all our eggs in one basket. The decisive thing is: We are capable of taking whatever action is needed and highly flexible in all technologies. That is the BMW way.
We have no desire to tell our customers what to do. We want to convince them – with perfect products and services for their lives.
I’m currently driving the BMW X7 on a daily basis and it is packed with state-of-the-art driver assistance systems that I love using. Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go function really makes my drives relaxing even in heavy traffic. It keeps me at a constant distance from the vehicle ahead at all times. If the traffic comes to a halt, the system applies the brakes until the car comes to a standstill and then automatically moves on as soon as the road is clear. But the BMW X7 has way more to offer. Features that I also use a lot are the lane change warning, the lane departure warning, the crossing traffic warning and the side collision protection. So no matter if I go to work or drive around at the weekend I always feel very relaxed and safe because the driver assistance systems support me a lot and make me look forward to every journey in my car.
Do you think there’s always going to be a place out there for the, shall we call it the “manually driven” car?
I am convinced there will always be a place for manually driven cars. Despite the fact that electric vehicles increasingly take over the roads, many people do buy a car for the driving experience that you get from a luxury model or a sports car; these people won’t give up their driving favourites.
If there’s one car that you’d love to have in your garage permanently, what would it be?
There are many BMW cars that I would love to have permanently in my garage. But there is another big dream that I have. I would love to have a BMW motorbike again. I love riding a motorbike and during my previous job at BMW Group India I even went to work by bike. It gives me a great feeling of freedom and fun! So if I had the choice I would go for the BMW R nineT Motorrad.