BMW's entry into the fully electric vehicle market is only beginning. The BMW i4 and iX are its first salvos. A pure battery-electric version of the 7 Series sedan, likely to be called the i7, will debut next year. Come 2025, the German carmaker will finally launch a new dedicated EV platform, called Neue Klasse, that'll underpin significantly more EVs. BMW, like all automakers, realizes that going green is essential but it wants to take environmentally-friendly technologies to even higher levels.

Speaking to German-language publication Merkur.de, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said that recycling has become a top priority for his company, stating that new cars could be 70 to 80 percent recyclable in the future.

"Humanity consumes around 100 billion tons of raw materials each year, almost all of which are taken from the upper layer of the earth," he said. "For reasons of sustainability, but also from an economic point of view, we cannot continue doing this forever."

Last September at the Munich Motor Show, officially called the IAA, BMW showed the 100 percent recyclable i Vision Circular Concept, previewing future plans and ideas. At present, new vehicles can only utilize about 30 percent recycled materials, a figure BMW firmly believes must increase. The upcoming Neue Klasse architecture aims to improve upon that.

"Today we have a 30 percent share of recycled material in the vehicle," Zipse added. "With the new class and our next vehicle architecture, we are moving towards 50 percent. And in perspective, I can even imagine 70 or 80 percent."

Zipse further stressed that the supply chain itself plays a major role in recyclability. Designing cars for this purpose is not the biggest obstacle but rather the ability to obtain the necessary components. That's why BMW has begun working closely with its suppliers to help overcome these hurdles. It won't happen overnight but we suspect that within a decades' time or so, new vehicles built with at least 70 percent recyclable parts will become standard practice, at least for BMW.