BMW Will Spend More On Autonomous Driving, Electric Cars

BMW’s profits this year will at least equal last year’s results as the automaker sinks billions into developing electric and autonomous car technology to meet expected changes in how people get from one place to another, the company said this week.

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Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter told an annual news conference Wednesday that it expects group profit before tax to be “at least in line” with 2017’s record 10.7 billion euros (currently $13.1 billion), which was up 10 percent.

Peter said the company would allocate “an increasing amount” to research and development after spending 6.1 billion euros in 2017, an increase of a billion euros. He said BMW remained financially strong, enabling a record dividend of four euros per share.

BMW made 8.7 billion euros net profit last year, up 26 percent. Last year’s result was boosted by 977 million euros through the positive impact of changes in U.S. tax law enacted near the end of the year. Revenues rose 4.8 percent to a record 98.7 billion euros.