BMW Wins World Green Car of the Year

A diesel powered BMW 1 Series has been voted “World Green Car of the Year”.

Presented at the 2008 New York International Auto Show, the jury acknowledged the significant impact and effect of the BMW EfficientDynamics development strategy giving the BMW 118d its low consumption and emission ratings.

Securing this victory, BMW has continued the series of international awards for its ongoing strategy of enhanced efficiency throughout the current range of BMW Group models.

The jury, made up this year of 47 motor journalists from 24 countries, awards the title “World Green Car of the Year” to vehicles and technologies able to make a particular contribution to the reduction of emissions.

The BMW 118d convinced the experts above all through its unparalleled balance of driving pleasure, on the one hand, and economy, on the other.

The 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine develops 105 kW and accelerates the BMW 118d to 100 km/h in a mere 9.0 seconds. By contrast, average fuel consumption in the EU test cycle is just 4.5 litres/100 kilometres and the CO2 rating is a mere 119 grams per kilometre.

BMW India has raised the capacity of its manufacturing plant

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, to mark the inauguration of its dealership facility Kun Exclusive here, Peter Kronschnabl, President, BMW India, said the company had invested half-a-million euro to increase the capacity. He said any further scale-up in investment would depend on how the market evolved in India. The capacity increase was done through optimisation of the production facility, he added.

Asserting that “there is no standing still at BMW India during 2008,” Mr. Kronschnabl said the company would reach out to customers with services conforming to global standards. BMW, he said, sold 1,387 cars in 2007, exceeding its plan of selling 1,000 cars. The sales target for 2008 was 2,000 cars, he added. “Eighty per cent of cars sold in 2008 will come from the Chennai facility,” he said. January and February had been record months which saw the company selling 229 and 241 cars, respectively, he said. At present, BMW India had an employee strength of 200. This number would go up considerably by the middle of this year, he added. BMW was working on introducing S6 in India.

He indicated that the India launch would happen in 2009, as the homologation process itself would take a few months.

BMW eyes India for global sourcing

As part of its global sourcing plan, luxury car maker BMW India Pvt Ltd is planning to enhance the workforce at its international purchasing office (IPO) headquartered in Gurgaon. The car maker is looking at sourcing components from India to support its operations globally.

Speaking to media, Peter Kronschnabl, president of the company said, "we are right now evaluating as to what are the components which can be sourced from India. The screening phase is on. It is done on parameters like quality, price and logistics.

Sourcing locally only for India will not be a good option as the number of cars sold in India is only a few thousands. We have to look at this for global sourcing. In the coming months we will be growing our IPO in India and also try and enhance the local content in BMW cars from the present level of 10%. BMW delivered 1,387 cars to its customers in India in 2007. This year, the target is 2,000 cars", he said.

Peter was here to inaugurate `Delta Motors', BMW's new dealership outlet in Hyderabad.

Driving the BMW Hydrogen 7

Today I got a chance to have a spin in the BMW Hydrogen 7. It’s one of only 20 of the hydrogen-powered cars in the world, so I was a little nervous that I might prang it, but luckily all went seamlessly. In fact, apart from a big “H2” in the middle of the dashboard (and a small button on the right of the steering wheel, which you can just about see in this picture)BMW1.jpg you wouldn’t know you were driving anything other than a regular BMW. As my co-pilot and BMW engineer Mario explained, the car runs on a dual-fuel system, which means it can process both regular gasoline and hydrogen (the button on the steering wheel allows a driver to choose; or the engine switches automatically when one tank is empty.) The lengthy engineering process involved adapting the regular 760Li’s 12-cylinder engine to work with both fuel sources – and to make room in the car for the bulky hydrogen tank, which holds 17.5 lbs of liquid hydrogen. As you can see in this other photo, BMW2.jpgthe tank sits in the trunk – and thus halves the luggage space of a regular 7 series (though the back seat still looks pretty roomy).