23 BMW Group Report 2024 To Our Stakeholders Combined Management Report Group Financial Statements Responsibility Statement and Auditor’s Report Remuneration Report Other Information Statement of the Chairman of the Board of Management We take a long-term approach to preparing for breakthrough innovations, making targeted investments in our future. In 2024, our investments reached new heights, with research and development expenditure of more than € 9 billion and capital expenditure of over € 11.8 bil- lion. In the coming years, these upfront investments in electrification, digitalisation, our pro- duction network, our product portfolio and the NEUE KLASSE will fully pay for themselves – exactly as we planned. BMW NEUE KLASSE – decided in 2020, start of production in 2025. In 2020 – in the middle of the global pandemic – the Board of Management committed to a completely new BMW product range. Later this year, the first model of the NEUE KLASSE – a Sports Activity Vehicle in the high-volume X segment – will roll off the production line at an entirely new plant. This will be followed shortly afterwards by a Sedan in the current BMW 3 Series segment from our main plant in Munich. The NEUE KLASSE will then be rolled out across our global production network. A total of at least six NEUE KLASSE models should be launched within 24 months of the start of production. No other manufacturer currently has a remotely comparable future-facing project ready for release onto the market, like we do with the NEUE KLASSE. The NEUE KLASSE exemplifies our long-term approach – strategically planning implemen- tation of our goals and executing them step by step, leveraging our financial strength, oper- ational excellence and strong team spirit. In this way, visions quickly become reality, improving the everyday lives of our customers around the world. All of us at the BMW Group are eagerly anticipating the next milestone in our Company’s history this year. What we announce, we bring to the roads – in the truest sense of the word – consistently and without excuses. This makes your Company stable and dependable in a highly volatile environment. Technology-open and market-oriented: our strategic approach prevails. If we look around our industry worldwide, there have been plenty of announcements and promises. Electromobility was long seen as the only path to the future – partly because it aligned with the prevailing mindset. Now, many manufacturers are reversing course and ad- justing their strategy. Your Company does not need to do that. We took a firm position from the beginning, even in the face of headwinds. We did so out of conviction – and because the facts and business logic said something dif- ferent. It is our technology-open approach that delivers a rapid climate impact in the here and now. Across all markets and regions, we exploit the available potential to the best of our ability: whether that means highly efficient internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles – or, from 2028 on, a production vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. This is why we deepened our partnership with Toyota last year. Customers and markets develop in different ways and at different speeds. Anyone who ig- nores this is passing up market opportunities. For this reason, we will continue to provide the right options for different mobility needs worldwide, across all segments and technolo- gies. “BMW – late winner of the drivetrain transition”. The idea of technology openness has since become firmly established among policymak- ers, the media and the public. It ultimately combines the exact two components our econ- omy and society need equally on the road to climate neutrality: on the one hand, technology – constant progress through innovation; on the other, openness – in other words, the ability to respond with flexibility and versatility when external conditions or market realities change at short notice, without prejudging the outcome. This is the situation we are experiencing right now. Our forward-looking approach is now recognised as a strategic advantage and robust busi- ness model. Evidence of this is provided not least by recent headlines, such as from the February 2025 edition of trade journal “auto, motor, sport” asserting: “BMW – late winner of the drivetrain transition”. I’m happy to leave it at that. Our BMW 540d xDrive Touring* and MINI Cooper SE* were awarded the “Goldene Lenkrad” (Golden Steering Wheel) in autumn 2024, as the best vehicles in their respective classes. The “Car of the Year Award” for the BMW 5 Series and BMW i5* also marks the first acco- lades for a technology-open model series in the history of the award. * ↗ Consumption and Carbon Disclosures. ‘‘This is our long-term approach: strategically planning the implementation of our goals. What we announce, we bring to the roads.’’