The BMW stand at the IAA Cars 2019 international motor show in Frankfurt am Main focuses on the theme of future driving pleasure. Alongside the latest new additions across a broad range of segments revealed by BMW as part of its ongoing product offensive, the premium carmaker is also exhibiting fascinating vehicle studies and trailblazing technologies expected to have a major impact on individual mobility in tomorrow’s world. The new products on show at the IAA Cars 2019 reflect both the rich variety of the company’s model portfolio and its capacity for innovation in the future-focused fields identified as part of the NUMBER ONE > NEXT strategy and known by the acronym D+ACES (Design, Automated driving, Connectivity, Electrification and Services). The brand’s multifaceted presentation programme includes the world premieres of the BMW Concept 4 and BMW i Hydrogen NEXT, the latest new models for the luxury and high-performance segments, additions to the BMW X family, newcomers in the premium compact and premium midsize segments, and alluring special editions from BMW i. Plus, the BMW Vision M NEXT study car makes its show debut, offering visitors another glimpse of driving pleasure in the years ahead.
The upshot of the largest model offensive in the BMW Group’s history was that the company sold more vehicles worldwide between January and June 2019 than ever before in the first six months of a financial year. The BMW Group continues to be the world’s most successful supplier of premium cars and is able to offer customers in more than 160 countries just the right selection of models while catering to all sorts of different legal conditions, technical requirements and individual preferences. Besides a flexible marketing strategy and a diverse product portfolio, this also calls for a broad range of drive technologies comprising highly efficient petrol and diesel engines, all-electric powertrains and plug-in hybrid systems – plus, looking further ahead, hydrogen fuel cell drive systems. The BMW Group has gained a clear advantage over its rivals by using flexible vehicle architectures that allow any particular model to be quickly produced with different drive technologies as demand dictates. This high degree of customer-centric flexibility is illustrated to impressive effect by the globally successful BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle, which will be available with a choice of conventional engines, a plug-in hybrid system or all-electric drive from next year. The BMW Group’s outstanding expertise when it comes to integrating highly complex yet beautifully harmonious complete systems underlines what a strong position the company is in as it competes with established suppliers and newcomers in the automotive sector.
BMW Group leads the way in electrification.
Following an early product offensive that has resulted in a wider choice of models than any of its rivals can offer, the BMW Group has also emerged as a leading force in the manufacture of vehicles with electrified drive systems. The company is ranked as the market leader in Germany for newly registered cars with all-electric or plug-in hybrid drive systems and the most successful established premium brand at both a European and global level (source: IHSMarkit Report 8/2019). The introduction of the very latest battery cell technology in the plug-in hybrid versions of the BMW 2 Series, BMW 3 Series, BMW 5 Series, BMW 7 Series, BMW X5, MINI Countryman and BMW i cars further increases the electric range of these models, and also adds additional convenience-enhancing charging functionality. All of which makes electric cars an appealing alternative for an ever-increasing spread of customer groups. By increasing the proportion of electric driving and employing digital services such as the BMW eDrive Zones function for automatically detecting green zones, the new plug-in hybrid models on display at the 2019 Frankfurt show will be able to make a major contribution to cutting CO2 emissions in urban areas.
The BMW Group will be bringing out yet more models with electrified drive systems as soon as 2020, including the plug-in hybrid variants of the BMW X3, BMW X1 and BMW 3 Series Touring and the all-electric MINI Cooper SE, which is also receiving its show premiere in Frankfurt. This will once again involve harnessing the expertise in the field of electrified drive systems that has been amassed during development of the BMW i models for transferring technology to the BMW and MINI brands. By 2023, the total number of models with an electrified powertrain offered by the BMW Group’s brands is set to increase to 25.
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SOURCE: BMW Group
