BMW doubles down on electric vehicles

The German automaker BMW will increase its orders of Samsung’s electric vehicle battery cells by 20 percent to 30 percent in 2016 from 2014 levels.

BMW’s exclusive supplier, South Korea’s Samsung SDI, will increase its number of BMW’s i3 and i8 electric cars, and start building up supply for future hybrid models, Reuters reports.

{mosads}BMW’s purchasing chief, Klaus Draeger, admitted that driving range, or “range anxiety” creates a challenge for battery electric cars.

“This is why the whole industry is still looking very much at fuel cells because it is not clear what is also happening on the side of the electric infrastructure,” Draeger said, adding that BMW is also researching a fuel cell vehicle system.