BMW planning mass production of e-vehicles by 2015

MUNICH: BMW has no plans for forming a partnership with other manufacturers on battery powered electric vehicles and has its own plans to mass-produce "megacity" e-vehicles by the year 2015, BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer has announced.

The car maker will decide by the end of the year whether to establish a subsidiary for the "megacity vehicles" alongside the current BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce labels, according to Reithofer.

In contrast to other big car makers BMW has not undergone a partnership with a battery maker for electric vehicles.

"Electric engines are a key part of our technology which we want to develop ourselves," the head of the research team Ulrich Kranz was quoted as saying by Germany's auto-motor-sport magazine.

BMW is currently testing a fleet of 500 electric MINI vehicles in Los Angeles and Berlin which are leased to fleet owners for a year.