The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study has only just come out for the year and at the top end of the whole affair sits some uninteresting company.

At the top end of the automotive industry however, the ranking reads Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, a company with a Munich headquarters we know as BMW.

Overall, our favorite brand doesn’t sit that brilliantly if we’re honest. BMW is barely standing at number 23, quite a long way away from the top 10 to say the least.

According to Milward Brown market researchers, the brand value of BMW stands at a chunky $24.6 billion US. The rest of the important crowd isn’t doing too well either.

The major rival BMW had to fend off was Toyota who’s valuation was $21.8 billion and then came Mercedes-Benz at $16.1 billion and, finally Honda sitting in at $12.7 billion.

We’ve not chosen these brands to talk about just for the fun of it, it’s there because these are the only automotive related brands to register a worth of more than 10 billion.

While we’re talking a bit about less than satisfying news, Toyota’s valuation went down for reasons not exactly dependent of them, the natural disasters that hit Asia hard last year.

Either way, as much as we love our cars, the true winners of the valuable brand award was Apple. The American tech giant is rated at $182.9 billion.

Predictably, it’s the world of computers that provides the remainder of the podium. IBM gets silver at $116 billion and Google gets the bronze medal for $107.9 billion

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Most valuable car brand award now with BMW again appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

To some, the best part of the new year arrival is the opportunity to summarize the previous one and see how much money they’ve made or lost during the period.

This is mostly the case for the automotive manufacturers who are now crunching the numbers. In regard to the U.S. market’s most competitive segment, the results are in.

After a very, very close battle with Mercedes, the Bavarians at BMW have won the big prize for premium car sales across last year.

Being a little more specific, the best selling premium brand of the U.S. market in 2011 was BMW.

Our favorite Germans have sold 247.907 units last year, sporting a 13 percent increase on top of the previous one. Not far behind Mercedes have managed to shift 245.231 vehicles.

The difference stands shallow now, but with one month to go, the fight was even closer as just over 1.500 units could have swung the result either way.

Some say that part of the success can be found in how BMW offered a 200 dollar incentive on each car sold in December, a practice Mercedes didn’t join into.

Sure enough, incentives work and BMW knows marketing but I seriously doubt many people are going to buy a premium car just because they get 200 dollars back. That’s the value of one tire in most cases.

Either way you want to swing it, there’s no getting away from the fact that, once again, crown for being the best-selling luxury automaker in America.

If 2011 was a tight battle, don’t expect 2012 to be that much different. In fact, Audi is still expected to start coming from behind, just as Lexus may make a comeback.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW is the best selling premium brand in the US appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW isn’t an enormous conglomerate of car brands like GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the rest. They only own Rolls Royce, Mini, their two wheeled division and the recently founded i sub-brand.

It’s the sort of operation that works well with the company organisation and, more importantly, with the product focus the Bavarians are so good at.

Still, the newest announcement from BMW and their Chinese partners, Brilliance, speaks of a bit of a departure with this idea.

The two will join forces to create a brand new… brand. The new car maker under the wing of BMW doesn’t have a name yet, but it does have a good product idea and a new marketing direction.

BMW has had quite the success on the Chinese market but what they’ve got to say about it is something you don’t hear everywhere else.

Yes, the Chinese market is a very strong one, the one that’s going to grow the most and all that but it lacks something.

None of the Chinese produced cars are attractive to the enormous markets all over the rest of the world. This is where the new partnership between BMW and Brilliance comes in.

The new EVs these two partners are going to create are going to aim for the export market as much as they are going to do so for the Chinese one.

To begin with, the lucky Chinese will get themselves a chance at a brand new BMW 5 Series plugin hybrid. The unveiling of this model took place at Auto Shanghai 2011, all the way back in April.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW & Brilliance to create new EV brand in China appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW have one of the most popular brands ever and their logo is one of the most easily recognized but very few actually know details on its coming to life.

To that extent the purpose of this article is to show a short history lesson to those who don’t know what I’m talking about.

Most of those who actually know something about the history of the infamous logo aren’t completely right.

Popular belief is that the BMW logo derives from the company’s history with aircraft engines and that the idea came from a white propeller turning round a blue sky. BMW themselves agreed to this interpretation in 1929 but this isn’t the full story, as by that time the logo had been in existence for more than 12 years.

The round logo actually evolved from the similar circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo, a company from which BMW was to expand into more and more products. However, while among aficionados there still is a dispute on whether the blue and white represent white blades cutting through the blue sky or the colors of the Free State of Bavaria, we have a short video to prove what’s what.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Short history lesson: The BMW Logo appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW’s electric four seater, the Megacity, is one eagerly awaited vehicle but according to some recent speculation it may be just the tip of the iceberg for the new market the Bavarians are approaching.

Apparently BMW are considering offering more than one variant of the Megacity and are even considering adding a sports car to the line.

BMW sales and marketing boss Ian Robertson has admitted to the fact that we could be expecting these multiple versions of the Megacity, when interviewed by Autocar, and also referred to the Vision EfficientDynamics sports car concept as something with a strong potential for becoming a pure electric sports car.

This said though it is to be expected that a production version of the Vision EfficientDynamics will be different in some ways but one thing has been set clear about the Megacity and this potential EV Sports Car, they will both be sold with BMW badges and no different brands are going to be started. They will still have a certain distinction, pretty much what you can expect from the M powered cars.

Until we see either of them on the road there’s a few things you need to know, neither will come cheap since BMW are very decided on killing weight as much as possible so most of the construction will be made of carbon fiber. Add to that pretty high cost of development and low target sales and prices aren’t going to be joyous.

Either way I have to say I’m eagerly awaiting an EV that’s done properly.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW is rumored to be planning Megacity EV sports car appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.