Electric and electric-hybrid vehicles have been touted as the more sound choice for commuters seeking to reduce their impact on the environment. All is not smooth sailing, as evidenced by the recent troubles of China electric car maker BYD, who saw their stocks plummet due to safety concerns and increasing competition. But nothing is stopping the the German car maker, BMW, with its new electric driven, zero emission vehicles, to meet the demand for sustainability and mobility. Read more

By Keith Bradsher for International Herald Tribune (31 May 2012):

HONG KONG — Four years ago, the BYD Company promoted the electric battery technology it was developing as a way to help China transform the automobile. No less an investor than Warren E. Buffett, one of the world’s richest men, boasted about the company’s prospects and bought a 10 percent stake.

But recently, nothing has gone right. BYD’s stock is down 43 percent from its high on Feb. 8 as investors and analysts have questioned whether the company has the technology or the manufacturing quality to be an enduring competitor in the Chinese market.

BYD’s sales of gasoline-powered cars, the company’s commercial mainstay, have wilted this spring as Chinese buyers have moved toward more expensive but better-quality cars from its rivals. At the same time, BYD now accepts that the future of the auto industry is more likely to lie in hybrid gasoline-electric cars, a technology in which it lags Japanese manufacturers, and not in all-electric cars, which still face issues of battery range and recharging time.

And on Sunday, new questions arose about the company’s battery technology when a Nissan GT-R sports car traveling at more than 110 miles an hour slammed into the back of one of BYD’s electric taxis in southern China and set the vehicle aflame.

The taxi, an e6 battery-electric sedan, spun across three lanes of traffic, hit a tree and turned into an inferno, killing all three occupants. Photos of the blazing wreck quickly spread on the Internet in China and sent the stock down sharply on Monday, prompting BYD to issue a long statement on Tuesday emphasizing that no car, electric or otherwise, would have been likely to survive such an impact.

“We don’t know what happened — the battery pack burned or the high-voltage gear burned or the fabric was lit or maybe some other reason,” said Paul Lin, the company’s marketing director, adding that neither the police nor the company had determined yet whether the high-speed impact or the ensuing fire caused the deaths.

Chinese news media reported that the sports car driver was a drunken man accompanied by three women. The occupants of the sports car were not seriously hurt and the driver fled.

Although BYD’s shares bounced back on Tuesday as investors appeared to accept the company’s explanation, BYD’s longer-term challenges remain.

When Mr. Buffett bought 10 percent of the company in September 2008, using a subsidiary of his main company, Berkshire Hathaway, BYD had plans to start exporting electric cars to the United States within two years. Those plans quickly stalled, partly because of the global economic slowdown, but also because BYD, like many automakers, has since concluded that gasoline-electric hybrids are more promising.

“More and more companies are certainly going to do it like this,” Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and chairman, said in an interview last autumn at his company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, while not ruling out a future for electric cars in China.

BYD’s biggest troubles in the last few months have been in the market for gasoline-powered cars. The company had grown rapidly over the last five years as a manufacturer of cheap, very basic cars for China’s rapidly expanding middle class.

But over the last year, middle-class car buyers in China have become a lot more discerning — and more prone to choose multinationals’ offerings than locally designed cars. Although other Chinese automakers are also struggling, BYD has been among the hardest hit.

BYD’s car sales fell 8 percent in the first four months of this year even as the overall Chinese car market grew 6 percent. In April alone, the company’s sales slid 19 percent as the market grew 18 percent.

Part of the problem is a sharp shift in government policies.

The city of Beijing, which had been the country’s largest municipal car market, cut by two-thirds last year the number of license plates it issues annually and created a lottery for distributing them. With license plates in short supply, buyers have tended to put them on expensive foreign-brand cars instead of locally manufactured economy cars.

The national government, in December 2010, ended two separate programs that had stimulated sales in 2009 and 2010. One policy had sharply reduced the sales tax on cars with very small engines, while the other had subsidized vehicle purchases by residents of rural areas.

Chinese manufacturers, particularly BYD, tend to make cars with small engines, and sell them disproportionately to rural buyers and other customers with relatively low incomes.

The Chinese government hinted on Monday that it might help the auto industry with a “cash for clunkers” program, providing government subsidies for people who trade in used cars for new cars, as part of a broader move by Beijing officials to stimulate the country’s faltering economy.

Source: www.nytimes.com

BMW i Born Electric Tour makes first stop in Rome

22 June 2012

Rome. The BMW Group inaugurated the BMW i Born Electric Tour at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni located at Via Nazionale 194 in Rome. The worldwide tour will go on to visit six other major cities over the next 12 months: Dusseldorf, Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, and Shanghai.

BMW i was introduced by the BMW Group last year and is now in the process of preparing for the launch of vehicles under the brand in coming years. The models will be characterized by extremely low environmental impact and designed for the express purpose of reconciling the demands for individual mobility and sustainability.

Two prototypes are being presented at the event: the BMW i3 Concept and the BMW i8 Concept. With its zero-emissions all-electric engine and a range of about 150 km, the BMW i3 Concept was designed expressly for city use. True to BMW, it also offers a dynamic driving experience.

“We are very proud,” stated Franz Jung, President and Managing Director of BMW Italia S.p.A., “that this world tour is starting out from Italy and from the city of Rome. This major urban city is predestined for innovative solutions and we wanted to confirm our commitment to sustainable mobility. Furthermore, we believe that the automobile represents an asset for society in terms of contributing to the creation of value, and at the same time, represents an irreplaceable means of individual mobility.”

The presentation in Rome is designed to demonstrate the BMW Group’s holistic approach to future mobility, not only in terms of products displayed, but also in terms of networking information, technologies, and transportation systems. The initiative also benefits from collaboration with the Italian architect and designer, Fabio Novembre. Through collaboration with the Officina Design and Driade, he will create his interpretation of the city and be the first of seven major world-class artists engaged to offer their visions of the urban context.

To underline the integrated approach of the event, other local designers and businesses working in the field of sustainable luxury goods, were selected to develop products representing “Next Premium”.  For example the high-fashion eyeglass frames W-eye™, the Etcetera-Design furniture brand, jewellery designer Alice Visin, and the Italian Catellani & Smith brand of lamps.

The event in Rome is scheduled to cover four days from the 20th to 24th June. Yesterday, a series of workshops open to public provided a platform to exchange views with international experts including Jessica Scorpio (Getaround), Benoit Jacob (BMW i), Oriana Persico (AOS), Andrea Granelli (kanso.it), Federico Ferrazza (WIRED), Carlo Ratti (MIT), Francesco Lipari (OFL Architecture), Fabio Novembre and Joseph Grima (DOMUS). On 22 and 23 June, the exhibit will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The detailed program of meetings can be found at www.bmw-i.it.

With BMW i, the BMW Group is consolidating its position as the most innovative and sustainable automobile manufacturer in the world and is responding to the challenges of the future in terms of eco-sustainable mobility. Together with its premium electric vehicles, BMW also offers a range of services for mobility. These are services aimed at optimizing the use of parking spaces, the utilization of navigation systems that can access local information, intermodal road maps, and car-sharing schemes such as DriveNow.

BMW i recently acquired an interest in MyCityWay and ParkatmyHouse web portals. ParkatmyHouse makes it possible for private persons to rent their personal parking space when it is not in use, via the internet or a specific smartphone application.

For further information please contact:

BMW Group Italia

Roberto Olivi

Corporate Communications Manager

Roberto.Olivi@bmw.it

BMW Group Corporate Communications

Cypselus von Frankenberg

Technology Communications, Spokesperson BMW i

Cypselus.von-Frankenberg@bmw.de

Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com and http://bmw.lulop.com

The BMW Group

The BMW Group is one of the most successful manufacturers of automobiles and motorcycles in the world with its BMW, MINI, Husqvarna Motorcycles  and Rolls-Royce brands. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 29 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2011, the BMW Group sold about 1.67 million cars and more than 113,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2011 was euro 7.38 billion on revenues amounting to euro 68.82 billion. At 31 December 2011, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 100,000 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been built on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy. As a result of its efforts, the BMW Group has been ranked industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the last seven years.

Source: www.bmwgroup.com