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BMW’s potential EV program revival to be decided as Oliver Zipse nears new CEO post
BMW’s electric car initiative is at a crossroads. After mostly being shelved by outgoing CEO Harald Krüger during his years leading the company, BMW’s EV program has the potential to see a revival with the naming of its new chief executive. Fortunately, recent reports indicate that BMW is set to name the rather understated Oliver Zipse over Klaus Fröhlich as the carmaker’s new CEO.
BMW’s supervisory board is expected to discuss the company’s new leadership at the Spartanburg, South Carolina plant on Thursday. So far, reports indicate that the 55-year-old Zipse is the favored candidate over the 59-year old Fröhlich, who serves as BMW’s Head of Development. Fröhlich had attracted a number of headlines as of late, particularly when he insisted that there was no demand for electric vehicles.
Zipse joined BMW as a trainee back in 1991, rising through the company’s ranks and holding several posts. Prior to becoming a board member for production, Zipse worked as the carmaker’s Head of Brand and Product Strategies. Over his years with the company, Zipse has shown proficiency in manufacturing efficiencies. BMW’s efficient production network, which was expanded in Hungary, China, and the United States, emerged under Zipse’s lead, and it has helped the carmaker deliver healthy profit margins.
Auto analysts and industry experts believe that it will take more than manufacturing expertise to lead BMW into the EV era. In a statement to Reuters, Carsten Breitfeld, a former BMW engineer who currently serves as the chief executive of China-based ICONIQ motors, noted that Zipse’s apparent appointment “goes far beyond optimizing an existing business.” “He needs to be able to build teams, to attract key talent, and to promote a culture which is increasingly oriented along consumer electronics and internet dynamics,” the former BMW engineer said.
One key aspect that Zipse would have to work on is BMW’s electric car program, which has lagged against rivals like Mercedes-Benz and Audi, both of which have already released, or a least unveiled, their own premium all-electric vehicles. BMW actually had an early lead with the i3, but the vehicle was practically abandoned by the company when it failed to get traction.
Silicon Valley-based Tesla, a newcomer on the market, has so far established a substantial lead in the EV space, and its Model 3 sedan has started eating into the sales of popular gas-powered four-doors like the BMW 3-Series. UBS analyst Patrick Hummel addressed this, stating that “Tesla has a lead of three to four years in areas like software and electronics. The millennials are much more focused on these things. There is a risk that the Germans can’t catch up.”
BMW had already made a mistake in electric vehicles once. During the time of the i3, it was reported that CEO Harald Krüger’s reluctance to push low-margin EVs ultimately led to an exodus of talented engineers. Among these are Christian Senger, who is now a board member responsible for software for Volkswagen, and Markus Duesmann, who is reportedly in line to be Audi’s CEO in the future. If BMW does decide on Zipse, it could have another chance at breaking through the emerging EV market, albeit late.
Now, if BMW elects the electric car-dismissing Klaus Fröhlich as its next CEO instead, the German carmaker could be looking into even more turbulent years ahead.
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
