As both Tesla, Jaguar and Volkswagen designers/executives explained and demonstrated, having no ICE engine
at all (even as an option) and designing a car for BEV only is a massive competitive
technological advantage:
- A PHEV ICE engine has to be in the front (or the rear), due to physics (no flat engine possible).
- This means that such a shared PHEV/BEV platform cannot use the "Tesla skateboard design" that the I-Pace and Volkswagen I.D. is using too, which design of having 'bulk' battery packs instead of flat (skateboard) battery packs has numerous disadvantages:
- Mass of the battery pack is either in the front or the back. If it's 50%/50% then that increases the "polar momentum" of the car significantly, making handling (cornering) worse.
- Beyond handling, the violence and injury probability of off-center side collisions depends on low polar momentum: the easier the car rotates away from the point of impact, the more time there is for passengers to decelerate safely - fewer injuries.
- The skateboard design also turns the battery pack into a structural support in side collisions: Teslas are extremely stiff in side collisions when there's very little intrusion distance that can be allowed, even compared to Volvos (!). With a bulk battery pack design there's very little structural role it can play, other than to be in the way.
- Skateboard design also lowers the center of gravity to ridiculously low, race car levels: this helps cornering, but also safety, low center of gravity means lower risk of the car to roll over.
- Frontal collisions safety: empty frunk space is a very good crunch zone, while PHEV engines and battery packs are not.
- Safety features like Cabin Overheat Protection or Dog Mode are not possible with PHEVs that have small, easy to deplete batteries. Preheating of the car becomes harder.
- "Always on" security features like Sentry Mode depend on a generously sized battery. I also expect some FSD features, like watching surroundings, to eventually be active while parked too. All this requires a generous electricity supply.
- Trunk+trunk is popular - but if the battery pack is in the front there's no frunk space.
- Luxury/premium cars are incredibly integrated designs where most components have an effect on other parts of the car. There are hundreds of other small optimizations you can do if there's only a single platform. In automotive dual platforms tend to unify the worst of both worlds.
I believe BMW is fundamentally mistaken in thinking that BEV and PHEV premium cars can share a dual platform.
It might have worked 5 years ago, as a stop-gap measure that might have given time to divorce ICE engines. It might also work for mass market cars in the $20k price range.
But it's inadequate today that customers and competitors can see the advantages of BEV-only premium car designs, and certainly not in 2021-2023 when BMWs new designs will enter volume production.