BMW now boasts two stellar electric luxury options in the form of the i7, introduced last year, and the i5, which just enjoyed its debut in Italy. Unlike other premium brands, BMW has kept the combustion-powered alternatives to these EVs looking identical, ensuring that customers get the same experience regardless of what powertrain they choose.

While this should make the transition to EVs seamless for luxury car buyers, in China, the term 'electric luxury' sounds like an oxymoron. While EV sales are growing for BMW globally, China seems to buck this trend in certain segments.

"We see interesting things happening in China," admitted Domagoj Dukec, BMW's Head of Design, in a roundtable at Villa D'Este. "We sell a lot more combustion engine 7 Series models in China than electric 7 Series."

China is on a mission to electrify mobility, providing various EV incentives, and encouraging local production of EVs for the masses. As a result, most new electric cars on the road are cheap and cheerful, and well-heeled buyers paint all EVs with the same low-grade brush.

"Luxury electric cars don't work in China," revealed Dukec, "as they don't associate electric with luxury."

When shopping around for something special, Chinese car buyers will seek out combustion-powered options.

"They even go to Nio and say, 'I like Nio the brand but when will you bring a V8?'" quipped Dukec.

Nio recently unveiled the all-new EC7 and ES8 flagship electric SUVs. But the Chinese carmaker first came to prominence with the EP9 supercar, which boasted 1,360 hp and a 2.7-second 0-62 mph time. Despite its savage design and performance, its electric powertrain meant wealthy car buyers didn't want it.

"ICE cars are better for expressing wealth, as a number plate for a combustion engine you pay like 100,000 Yuan ($14,100). So electric cars are considered cheap, and everything which is combustion is expensive."

Big cities in China, like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, have strict quotas for new license plates and hold auctions where people commonly spend over $14,000 to get a license plate for a new car. At the same time, free license plates are issued to EV buyers, incentivizing residents to go green.

Dukec also believes governments could abandon these EV policies just as quickly as they adopted them.

"You can never predict what the governments will do next," he said.

Speaking about the Chinese government, he believes that "they never planned to change the whole car industry. They just wanted to motorize one billion Chinese people who don't have a car, and this has to be with electric cars [given current policies]."

Whether or not ICE cars are given a stay of execution, perhaps after someone works out how to industrialize e-fuel globally, it's clear that BMW will continue to profit from offering combustion-powered luxury vehicles in China.

More broadly, BMW hasn't given up on keeping combustion alive in all markets. "Our CEO [Oliver Zipse] spends a lot of time in Brussels trying to convince politicians that [EVs] makes no sense in the long run," admitted Dukec. The EU wants to ban the sale of combustion-powered cars by 2035. But with provision made for synthetic fuels (albeit strong opposition to these being a suitable long-term solution) BMW has a few more years of lobbying left to stop the outright ban of ICE cars. If it can prove these cars have a place, there may be hope yet.