AROnline news

John Reed, FT.com, 12th January, 2009

BMW on Monday lambasted the state aid offered to carmakers in the US and Europe, saying that it “distorted competition” in the industry and that it should be offered to more companies. The warning by the world’s largest luxury carmaker comes as Canada, Sweden, Germany and other countries follow the US in bailing out carmakers and while the UK Government considers aid measures.

General Motors and Chrysler are receiving $17.4bn of emergency federal aid, in addition to $25bn in low-interest loans for carmakers’ investments in greener vehicle technology. “If funds are made available to American domestic manufacturers, the same programmes should be made available to other manufacturers in the US,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s Head of Sales and Marketing, told the Financial Times. “Otherwise you distort competition, and that’s not reasonable.”

Mr Robertson also criticised the notion of one-off Government loans being offered to carmakers such as Jaguar/Land Rover. “If there are offers on the table, they should be offered to everyone. If the Government wants to support Jaguar/Land Rover, they should support everyone,” Mr Robertson said.

“That is part of the level playing field.” The British Government is considering a request for emergency loans and other financial aid made by the industry through the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders industry lobby group to keep their carmaking, dealership, and retail finance operations afloat.

However, carmakers including GM and India’s Tata Motors, owner of Jaguar/Land Rover, have also approached the Government individually about loans or guarantees. Mr Robertson said that BMW employed more people in the UK at its plants in Swindon, Goodwood and Oxford than did Jaguar/ Land Rover.

A second industry executive said on Monday that growing state handouts to carmakers could lead to “warfare” and competition among countries. “If the French government had given $25bn to Renault and Peugeot, everybody would have been outraged, but this was America,” said Shai Agassi, Chief Executive of Better Place, a Palo Alto, California-based company building infrastructure for electric cars. “Once America does it, everyone has to do it.”

GM is also discussing the possibility of €1bn-€2bn ($1.35bn-$2.7bn) of guarantees from the German government for its Opel subsidiary, and “up to $1bn” from Sweden’s Skr20bn ($2.5bn) fund for car and truckmakers, according to Carl-Peter Forster, head of GM Europe.

However, Mr Forster denied that GM was seeking special treatment. He said the company was seeking Government guarantees to access €16bn of European Investment Bank aid for carmakers, which he said was limited to companies with investment-grade credit ratings. “The German and Swedish money is mostly a guarantee to put us on a level playing field,” he said.

[Source: FT.com]

BMW BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, JLR

just-auto.com Editorial Team, 25th November, 2008

BMW and Vattenfall Europe are to launch a test project for 50 electric cars in Berlin next year. The project will see 50 Mini E cars on the streets of the German capital with public access to recharging points. It is expected to launch as early as spring next year.

Vattenfall will provide the power, which will be available either via public re-charging stations, or via the mains of the Mini E drivers’ homes. The recharging stations will be designed in such a way that vehicles produced by other carmakers can also ‘fill up’ from them.

“Electro-mobility is the future”, said Sigmar Gabriel, federal minister for the environment, at the joint press conference in Berlin. “Further we have to take care that electric vehicles are able to use renewable energy. Only if we achieve that, we have zero-emission vehicles in the whole stream.”

“We are delighted that our cooperation sets the starting point of a development towards electro-mobility in a metropolis such as Berlin”, said Tuomo Hatakka, CEO of Vattenfall Europe. “Our recharging points will be available to all electric vehicles and simple to use: everyone driving an electric vehicle can recharge their vehicle at any time. Thus we expressly support projects of other companies which have already been announced.” Overall, Hatakka continued, the aim should be to develop a blanket coverage of recharging infrastructure.

Dr. Norbert Reithofer, CEO of the BMW Group, said: “The Mini E does not emit a single gram of CO2 while driving. What we want to know now is how normal customers would use an electric car in their daily lives. To create the preconditions of electromobility is also a challenge of political leadership. We will support this challenge with data and facts that we gain from this project as we want to be able to have a realistic view of the potentials this technology might bear.”

[Source: just-auto.com]

BMW BMW, MINI

just-auto.com Editorial Team, 26th November, 2008

BMW’s Chinese joint venture, BMW-Brilliance Auto, has begun construction of a second plant in China’s Northeast province of Liaoning, according to reports.

The Xinhua News Agency said the plant will expand production of BMW-Brilliance, a joint venture between the German group and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, to 80,000 units upon completion. The new plant will have a 45,000-unit annual capacity.

In October, BMW reported strong sales growth in China in the first nine months of the year. The company said that its January-September group sales in mainland China rose 30.4% to 47,342 units. Sales of BMW brand vehicles rose 29% to 44,980 units in the nine-month period, including 25,026 BMW 3 Series and 5 Series made in China, the German automaker said.

[Source: just-auto.com]

BMW, China Watch BMW, BMW-Brilliance, Brilliance