BMW CEO says 'can't afford mistakes' ahead of fully electric launch

BERLIN (Reuters) -BMW chief executive Oliver Zipse expects a reordering of the car industry in the coming years, warning in an interview on Thursday that the sector cannot afford mistakes, as the company bets heavily on its revamped electric vehicle offering.

"There will be a selection process in our industry," Zipse told the Spiegel news magazine.

This, he said, was why the German carmaker decided five years ago to overhaul its portfolio with the new, fully electric 'Neue Klasse' series, with which it hopes to catch up with EV pioneer Tesla.

"You can't afford to make mistakes in this industry," Zipse told the magazine, speaking ahead of BMW's unveiling of the first model in the series, the iX3, at the Munich car show next week.

Spiegel quoted an industry specialist on the risk of BMW's 'Neue Klasse' strategy.

For a relatively small producer like BMW, it is "enormously important that such a billion-euro investment doesn't go down the drain", said Stefan Bratzel, head of the Centre of Automotive Management.

(Reporting by Rachel More, Editing by Miranda Murray)

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