Car News: BMW Has Plans For Newly Designed Vehicle By End Of 2021, Says CEO

Luxury carmaker BMW said on Thursday that it will announce plans for a newly designed vehicle at the end of 2021.

“At the end of the year, we will make an announcement to build another high-end car,” Chairman Oliver Zipse told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on “Squawk Box.”

“It is not a successor model, it’s a brand-new model, high-end for the American market but also for the world market.”

Zipse did not provide any additional specifics about the new vehicle but touched on his support of the Biden administration's lofty ambition for 50% electric vehicle sales by 2030.

The new model is being produced in its Spartanburg plant located in Geer, South Carolina, Zipse told CNBC. The Spartanburg plant has the company’s highest production volume of all BMW plants in the world. BMW models X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and performance models are all produced there and exported globally. BMW exports about 70% of the vehicles it produces at the U.S. plant.

Unverified pictures were recently leaked on social media and car blogs about a new X8 model.

“It’ll be built using the same underpinnings as the BMW X7 but offer a more aggressive design and further performance options including a future X8M that’ll stack up against the likes of the Audi RSQ8 and Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 Coupe,” U.K.-based vehicle website Car Wow explained as possible details.