The BMW Group recently held its annual general meeting in Munich and used the opportunity to reaffirm its earning and sales targets for 2011. The company also explained its plans for sustainable mobility and the launch of its i brand.
At the meeting, chairman of the board of management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer, stated that the company is still on track to reach its target of setting new earnings records for the current financial year. Reithofer also believes that BMW AG is very capable of recording an all-time sales high by selling “well over 1,5 million vehicles”.
The implementation of its Strategy Number One, that concentrates on the continued investment in new products and technology, is still at the forefront of the company’s plans. The rollout of BMW’s i brand forms part of this.
The first i brand to be launched will be the i3 in 2013. BMW explains that this will be the “first pure electric vehicle for major cities”. Soon after, the company will debut what it describes as “an extremely fuel-efficient sports car”. Thanks to BMW’s EfficientDynamics technology, future combustion engines will be less harmful to the environment.
Having had a very successful financial year in 2010, BMW continues to look for ways to cut costs and keep the overall cost of manufacturing a vehicle as low as possible. As a way of achieving this, the company plans to use common architectures and modules across model series. “We are developing fewer parts and components. Processes are becoming more stable and the error rate is falling,” explained Reithofer.
So far, 2011 has been a successful year for the Bavarian company. There was an increase in revenue across the board – the company reported a 28,9-per-cent increase when compared with the same period last year. And BMW is not slowing down; read our recent report on the company’s upcoming model launches to see what more to expect.
BMW believes that its future plans of will allow it to “expand (its) leading premium position in the automobile industry. The company has the right DNA and the right values to be successful in the future”.
