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NEWS
BMW's new model salvo in 2013 and 2014
Alternative-energy vehicles are the headline act as BMW gears up for a very hectic periodBMW executives have confirmed that 2013 and 2014 will be one of the busiest periods in its history, with ten all-new vehicles to enter production and fifteen existing models set for updates of varying degree and depth.
Speaking at the company’s recent annual finance press conference, board member Friedrich Eichiner told media the company’s alt-power strategies have been paying off since the introduction of its branded EfficientDynamics technology program. This has been with a lot of work however, and a necessary overspend on R&D, he said. In 2012, Group R&D consumed €3.95 billion – a €580 million increase on the previous year.
“[This is] an area we invested in earlier than our competitors. That investment has since paid off: Our vehicles today combine fuel economy with enhanced performance. This is a crucial selling point. Innovative products and technologies will continue enabling the BMW Group to maintain its competitive lead.”
The upshot is a busy couple of years launching new product across the globe, with “no fewer than 25 new models [to] enter series production in 2013 and 2014 – ten of them brand-new vehicles”.
The company’s Australian operation sees a raft of midlife updates and all-new models this year, most in the first three quarters.
With ActiveHybrid 7, a high-performance petrol-electric variant of its 7 Series limo, now on sale, the company has already started on a sequence of updates and expansions to the 3 Series lineup. This week saw the launch of the four-cylinder petrol and diesel Touring wagons and the announcement of a new base end 316i. Mid-year, a 3 Series Gran Turismo hatch will be added to the lineup, to sit below the 5 Series GT launched in 2010.
Spy pics are already emerging of a four-door 3 Series Gran Coupe to compete with Benz’s new CLA, while the 6 Series Gran Coupe lineup has also just been expanded to include a 640d oiler variant.
Meanwhile, what consumers now know as the 3 Series coupe will assume its own 4 Series badge, to be released with substantial updates outside and in, helping delineate it from the four-door models whose name it has shared to date.
The second half of the year will see midlife updates to the Z4 sportster and the midsize 5 Series. The 2014 Z4, revealed earlier this year at the Detroit motor show, gets a modest facelift and more opportunity for individualisation via new colours and trim options. The 5 Series, set for debut at the Shanghai show in April, is expected to get similar treatment – enough to take it through to the next generation.
Later in the year will come the third-generation X5. Little information has turned up beyond spy shots, and BMW Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher says the company hasn’t nailed down a local launch date beyond late 2013 or early 2014.
Next year will also usher in a new convertible 4 Series variant and the next-gen M3/M4, heralding the flagship muscler’s return from V8 to inline six, albeit this time twin-turboed.
But BMW’s biggest news in years is its entry into the zero-emissions segment with the launch of the i3 electric city commuter (pictured testing). It will be followed in 2014 by the i8, set to join Benz’s SLS E Cell as the nearest things the mainstream industry has yet come up with to an all-electric supercar.
The i Series is all-new product, designed from clean sheet for electric power from its skinny wheels up, shares nothing with its IC stablemates. “It’s a no-compromise EV, so expect to see substantial improvements in efficiencies and performance over much of what we’ve seen to date,” BMW Australia spokeswoman Lenore Fletcher told motoring.com.au.
Board chairman Norbert Reithofer used the press conference to explain how the i3 doesn’t just set new benchmarks for running efficiency, but how his company is “revolutionising how cars are made.”
The I Series’ unique two-layer build architecture places a carbon fibre “life-module” atop an aluminium “drive-module”. All-new manufacturing processes use the company’s own high-tech bonding methods to connect the two modules. Dramatic reductions in component count and mechanical complexity serve to cut build times, helped by parallel production operations for both halves. “As a result, it takes only half as long to make a BMW i3 compared to a car of a similar size in our [conventional] portfolio,” Dr Reithofer concluded.
Australia isn’t likely to see the i3 until some way into 2014, the i8 for some time after that. Such timing for their arrival is apposite, given the relative paucity of charging infrastructure even in major metro areas.
Australia’s uptake of electric power has trailed Europe, the US and Asia, all of which have themselves seen adoption rates tardier than the likes of Mitsubish, Nissan and Tesla would have liked. Such has been consumer disinterest, in fact, that Audi has shelved its much publicised e-tron EV products until further notice.
With our total EV fleet numbering in the hundreds, Australia lags commensurately behind those more populous continents in the rollout of EV charging infrastructure as well. With Mitsubishi and Nissan having blazed the trail over the last several years in cahoots with specialists like ChargePoint and several utilities, Ms Fletcher told motoring.com.au BMW is already doing its bit behind the scenes to expand the national charge network in the lead-up to the launch of its i-product line. The company is staying quiet on the details for the time being, she says. “But we’re in talks with a number of parties about building on what’s already in place.”
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Written byJeremy Bass
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