Massimo Senatore

He came to Portugal in 2018. Leaving his native Italy, he embarked on yet another BMW adventure. Massimo Senatore is the brand’s CEO in Portugal. A lot has changed in his life. Personally and professionally. The smile on his face is contagious. As a manager, he is proud to have contributed, together with his team, to making BMW the «best premium brand in the country». Over the next few lines, he talks about the group’s present and future; the growth of electric vehicles (the «i’s», as they would have us call them); the desire to make it to a 50% share of sales being 100% electric cars by 2030; sustainability; the myths about range; the model of sales online and through agents; and the BMW iVision Dee, which has shown that the future of the vehicle category is not so far away. Massimo believes that the future will be greener and that BMW will be at the forefront of innovation.

What has changed in the company and in your life since you became the Managing Director of BMW Portugal in 2018?
On a personal level, it has been an incredible surprise for all of us at home (and we have four children). The weather, the food, the transparency of the people, who are more relaxed than the Italians, even the more advanced services (I know that many Portuguese don’t believe this, but it’s true). Portugal is a culturally advanced and open country. We live with less stress, and the attention to detail, such as the way we dress, is totally different from Italy. The academic system is excellent and, last but not least, there’s a great passion for football, which I love.
On a professional level, it has also been incredible. We’ve changed a lot of things as a team, we’ve taken on challenges and, together, we’ve put BMW in the position it deserves, as the best premium brand in the country, in terms of reputation and image, not just sales. But it wasn’t just BMW Portugal that changed with my arrival, I have changed and learned a lot too. I’m lucky to be leading an extraordinary team. People who are agile, transparent, honest, focused on the goals, passionate, dedicated and always ready to help other people. It’s a team with a lot of talent, with real CR7s who work as a team (a little more than the CR7, I might add, but not in a bad way). Team spirit is the greatest asset and so I can only say thank you, because I feel that the experience has made me a better manager.  

Four years down the line, would you change anything?
There are always lessons to be learned, but overall I wouldn’t change a thing, in the sense that this has been a dream journey, something I would never have imagined. In terms of results, as a team (and I like to stress «the team», because they alone are responsible for this journey), we have managed to achieve results beyond all expectations. We have a fantastic position in the premium segment and have one of the BMW brand’s best market shares in the whole of Europe and the world. In terms of corporate reputation, we are the best brand in the car industry and the most followed brand on Instagram. Of course, there are things I could have done better. For example, I would have liked to have created even more opportunities for the talents we have to take on new challenges, but we’re working on that. Change without vision and goals is dangerous. But change with a clear development plan, a vision for the future and a well-planned assessment of our talents is a key ingredient for success.  

BMW has been focusing on electrification (the so-called «i’s»). We’re talking about cars that satisfy the consumer in terms of driving and design. Is the brand’s commitment yielding the results the group had hoped for?
Absolutely. It was a commitment to the group’s present and future, which is showing good results, both globally and in Portugal. To give you an idea, when we talk about solely electric cars, the «i’s», our growth was around 138.1% last year, and we expect to continue growing this year. 100% electric models accounted for 15% of BMW’s sales in 2022, which is above the national market average of 11.4%. If we’re talking about all electrified models, it was around 46%, also above the national market. On a global level, we expect at least 50% of the group’s sales worldwide to be 100% electric cars by 2030.

«I feel that the experience has made me a better manager»

The car market has been growing. The sales prove it. But is the world ready for 100% electric cars?
The car market is certainly on the rise, especially after the general impact on the sector during the pandemic years. And it also seems clear to us that electric cars are significantly contributing to the sales figures. However, there is a lot to take into account. First of all, we need to understand that the electric transition is not happening at the same pace all over the world. In addition, each brand has its own timing for committing to strategies related to electric mobility.
Interestingly, Portugal is quite advanced in terms of infrastructure when compared, for example, with some European countries, although there is still a lot to be done. There are many markets that don’t have the conditions and infrastructure that allow them to charge electrified cars and we can’t simply force someone to adopt the same paradigm, for which they aren’t ready.
Even so, electric mobility is already a reality and will play a crucial role in building an increasingly decarbonised industry. We believe that the future will indeed be greener and BMW will continue to operate with sustainability as one of the main pillars of its global strategy.  

Do you feel that there are still many doubts when it comes to electric cars?
Yes, there are still some myths that it’s always important to keep on dispelling them. Even so, there has been a change in mentality. Nowadays, consumers – and this is a good thing – are paying more and more attention to sustainability. This greater attention to the subject is closely linked to the growth of electric models. Then there is the fact that the industry has evolved so quickly that what used to be a lack of confidence, leading to the creation of certain myths, no longer makes sense today. I’ll give you a very specific example that we know is always the biggest doubt: what about range? BMW’s first electric attempt was with the BMW i3 in 2013. It was a smaller, city model with a range of around 200 kilometres. Ten years have gone by. In September, we introduced the new BMW i5 here in Portugal, a saloon with a range of up to 582 kilometres. Add to that the fact that a decade later the country has thousands of charging stations available and it’s easy to see that the doubts are giving way to good certainties. However, there is still a need to invest in infrastructures that meet the needs of all electric car drivers, so that the rest of the public is increasingly willing to embrace electric mobility.   

What is changing in the electric vehicle category? And how has communication evolved in the sector?
If we look at what has happened in the car industry, where technological innovation has been a pioneering force, I think we can say with some confidence that very few sectors have evolved this much in this decade. And even in terms of the car industry, this decade has perhaps been one of the most intense and rapidly changing periods in history. BMW always likes to work with the future in mind and, just this year, our BMW iVision Dee has shown what a perhaps not so distant future might look like. For the coming years, our Neue Klasse platform will demonstrate how the driving experience will be even more personalised, enriching and electric.
Electric mobility is, of course, the main highlight, but if I had to summarise everything down to a single change in the sector, I’d say that the most important thing is the importance that sustainability has deservedly gained. In today’s context, brands operating in the premium sector, such as BMW, cannot focus solely on quality, exclusivity or experience without focusing on sustainability. This is a paradigm shift that requires brands to be at the forefront of innovation without ever losing sight of the collective goal of more sustainable mobility. Naturally, this paradigm can also be seen in terms of communication. The most important part is that it’s not enough to say we’re greener. Communication must be based on facts and transparency. And that’s what also makes us confident: at BMW, we genuinely mean it when we say that we’re going to continue to be at the forefront of the industry by following an ambitious path in terms of decarbonisation.   

And in terms of sales, will the online market play a more important role in the future, or will consumers continue to prefer to visit a dealership to actually make the purchase?
What drives us at BMW in all our strategic decisions is the excellent service we want to provide to our customers. Digitalisation is a reality and we are aware that what customers expect from the purchasing process is changing these days. In Europe, where this reality is most relevant, the BMW Group is going to invest in a direct sales model, with the aim of responding to customer expectations and increasingly favouring a digital premium service experience. It’s going to be a long process, starting as early as 2024 at MINI, and by 2026 it will have arrived at BMW. I would also like to make it clear that this sales model does not exclude our partners, currently referred to as «dealerships» and, in the future, as «agents». Agents will continue to play a key role in the sales process by advising and accompanying customers. 
We are convinced that this change will benefit all parties involved in the buying process: the customers, who will have an increasingly distinctive buying experience; the agents, who will be able to continue with an attractive business model; and us, of course, since at the heart of the whole process lies the aim of having even more direct contact with our customers. 

Electric cars or combustion cars?
As a car manufacturer, we are aware that there are many factors that influence a person to buy a new car. An energy transition is inevitably a long process and I think we’re at a stage in the market where people are thinking more and more about the kind of use they expect to make when they buy a car. But at BMW, we have always argued that there is not just one decarbonisation solution. We’re at the forefront of electric mobility, but we are aware that we’re not focusing on just one technology. The BMW Group is also developing hydrogen fuel cell technology and currently has a fleet of BMW X5s in circulation that use this technology; and more efficient combustion engines. We believe that in the future we will offer our customers a diverse range of solutions to meet their mobility needs (fossil fuels, electric, hybrid and hydrogen).
At BMW, we realise that every customer is different, but they all share the same expectation of the brand: a premium driving experience, accompanied by excellent customer service.