Business 5 July 2019, 2:58pm

BMW Chairman-CEO Krüger is stepping down

Portfolio

The Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Harald Krüger, has given notice on Friday that he will not seek a second term of office, and will step down as of the end of April 2020.

Harald Krüger has been the Chairman of the Board of Management and Chief Executive Officer at Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (BMW AG) since 13 May, 2015 and has been its Member of Board of Management since 1 December, 2008 and served as its Head of Production until 13 May, 2015. He has also been serving as Member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG since 17 May, 2018.

The Supervisory Board will address the matter of a successor during its next meeting on 18 July 2019.

The BMW Group has been my professional home for more than 27 years. After more than ten years in the Board of Management, more than four of which as the CEO of the BMW Group, I would like to pursue new professional endeavours and leverage my diverse international experience for new projects and ventures

, said Krüger.

The Germany luxury carmaker has recently tabled a new strategy, as it turned out its management underestimated the importance of electric vehicles.

Over the last years, the automotive industry has been shaped by enormous changes, which have brought about more transformation than in the previous 30 years

, added Krüger.

He thanked all BMW employees for their “tremendous efforts" and “outstanding commitment", adding that BMW is “on a path towards a successful future during the most significant transformation of this industry."

BMW announced last month that it is now aiming for a total of 25 electrified models in 2023, two years earlier than previously announced.

“Thanks to flexible vehicle architectures for fully-electric, plug-in hybrid and combustion engine drive trains, the company is able to respond quickly to changing conditions. More than half of the 25 models will be fully electric," it said in a statement on 25 June.

Krüger also projected that by 2021, BMW will have doubled its sales of electrified vehicles compared with 2019.

We expect to see a steep growth curve towards 2025: Sales of our electrified vehicles should increase by an average of 30 percent every year

, he added..BMW’s share price has not reacted markedly to the announcement, it dropped merely 0.5%, while the share price rose 5.6% since the end of 2018.