What you need to know
- BMW CFO Nicolas Peter says he sleeps "very peacefully" despite the threat of a potential Apple Car release.
- The executive says that the company is confident it will maintain its market share with its own innovation.
BMW's CFO doesn't seem too concerned about an Apple Car making its way onto the streets.
In a new interview with Bloomberg, Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter was asked about reports that Apple may be a few years away from making its debut in the auto industry. The executive says that, rather than the bring stressed about the concept, he sleeps "very peacefully."
"I sleep very peacefully," Peter said when asked about Apple. "Competition is a wonderful thing -- it helps motivate the others. We're in a very strong position and we want to remain in a leading position of the industry."
The company seems to be quite confident in its ability to maintain and grow market share with its own electric and autonomous offerings. BMW's Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Zipse, also pushed back against the threat of a similar competitor: Tesla. The CEO cast doubt on Tesla's continued growth due to other automaker's desire to enter the EV market.
Speculation that Apple is working on an autonomous electric vehicle has added to concerns that carmakers face formidable threats from more technologically adept disruptors. Peter, a 30-year veteran of BMW, believes premium manufacturers' higher returns will furnish them with the billions of dollars of cash needed to plow into new technologies.
One of the reasons BMW may be sleeping easy at night when it comes to Apple Car is that the company could be a potential partner to Apple in making the car. This is purely speculatory, but Jürgen Pieper, an analyst at the German bank Metzler, threw out the idea in a report that said Apple could be more likely to partner with a smaller automaker for the project.
"Maybe BMW sees it a bit differently, saying, 'OK, at some point we have to accept that Apple is entering the auto business, and if that is happening, we want to be the partner instead of anybody else,' " said Pieper.
It's not necessarily a crazy idea, either. BMW's relationship with Apple has been good as of late, with the automaker being featured in last year's WWDC and also being one of the first to support digital keys.
