To connoisseurs, Daimler is a German multinational automotive corporation with Mercedes Benz in its portfolio. Knowing about the fierce competition for the first place on the market between Mercedes and BMW, one would have expected for Daimler boss to talk more about the brand it represents…

Even so, Dieter Zetsche, general director of Daimler, claims that they are not going to take the first place in terms of sales by the end of 2013, even though he is not sure that this will apply to BMW as well.

With other words, an official from the competitors’ bench expresses the belief that BMW will take the first place this year. We would add – this year, again, after BMW had the same position in 2011 and in 2012.

The rivals from the second place are having big plans to achieve by 2020 – meaning to finally overcome BMW in terms of sales, even though Bavarian Motors will not just sit back and wait to be outnumbered.

Even so, the markets are more or less stable these days, with car makers reporting excess capacity and low sales. How ill BMW and its German competitors sort things out will be interesting to see!

Meanwhile, BMW and Mercedes are not just fighting for sales, but also for supremacy on the luxury US auto market!

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Daimler boss makes bright predictions over BMW’s sales number appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

One figure had escaped us from 2012. Now that the figures have started to come in, the Bavarians are once again on top.

We’re talking about the sales in the luxury segment, of course. This is where BMW have beaten their closest rival Mercedes, at the end of last year.

The three pointed star had been trailing for quite some time and it even managed to get a couple of months in the lead but when it was all done, they had to settle for the silver.

BMW finished last year with 281.460 cars sold. This has put them ahead of Mercedes by a surprisingly small figure of 7.326 units.

The growth is remarkable since Bavaria’s finest have actually been lagging behind Mercedes at the end of November. Back then the gap was 1,849 units.

Eventually, the total for Mercedes came in at 274.134 units, a growth of 12% compared to the previous year. Pretty good, but compared to BMW’s sales rise of 14 percent, it’s a little laggy.

The December deciders of the new sales figures where the more popular sedans in the bunch. The BMW 5 Series and the E Class enjoyed much increased sales.

32 percent, or 6.984 units more where sold of the E Class and that accounted for 9% of the company’s growth. As to be expected, it was better for BMW.

It was actually much better since the F10 BMW 5 Series sales went up by a chunky 72 percent, being a considerable part of the 37.399 cars they moved last month.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW wins 2012 luxury sales race in US appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

Great victories require lots of smaller ones, at least this is beginning to be the thought process of BMW when it comes to it’s strategy in the future. Because of the world’s trends and evolving markets, especially in China, BMW tries to plan ahead of it’s main rivals Lexus and Mercedes and slowly but surely cut down on size.

The German car manufacturer thinks that in order for it’s models to be more attractive to customers, they have to be smaller, more efficient with fuel management and lighter. Thus, BMW will be adding new investments to its plants.

This is also true for the engines, especially the V8, because Europe and China don’t require as many except for the US that will probably remain a niche market for them.

So times are changing and power isn’t everything nowadays, not in a car from the premium segment. China, for example, isn’t interested in horsepower as it is in emissions and fuel consumption. So BMW, in order to qualify for it’s second biggest market, must accept its demands. And if we think of the numbers that result from BMW car sales there, they have good reasons too.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW: Smaller, Lighter, Better appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW is the world’s largest luxury automaker, but it may be feeling Audi breathing down it’s neck which is why the Bavarian company announced a massive cost cutting program.

BMW will get some assistance from a partnership with Daimler AG’s, Mercedes-Benz unit, in order to significantly reduce spending on components and suppliers by $5.2 billion by 2012.

Mercedes may be a rival but BMW can’t really afford not to have this pact with the devil as the savings that are to be amounted boggle the mind.

In an interview for Bloomberg Herbert Diess, Director of BMW Motorrad, stated that the talks between BMW and Mercedes-Benz have lead to the creation of new projects over the past several months that will help both companies cut spending by about another 100 million euros a year by 2012.

Efficiency is always a key word within any BMW product and now it will be applied to the brand economy as well, BMW is looking into every cost lowering aspect and they will even be helping component suppliers improve efficiency as well as develop systems, such as start/stop technology, that they may be able to sell to other manufacturers.

It seems that BMW have realized that efficiency cannot be achieved just through high volume of sales and, according to Diess, new projects with Mercedes-Benz will lead to significant savings as well as technical advances.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW teams up with Mercedes in order to cut costs appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

At 53 years, BMW’s head designer, namely the american Christopher Bangle left BMW brand and auto industry and will focus on his own design projects that are not in auto industry. Also, Bangle became the BMW’s chief designer in 1992 and he designed the BMW Z9 Gran Turismo.

The BMW’s chief developement, namely Klaus Draeger said that van Hooydonk will follow the post of chief designer at BMW. The last creation of Bangle’s erra was Gina Concept.

Chris Bangle was criticized in BMW’s revolutionary concept design in 2002, but the future pointed out that BMW has been successful because it has passed mercedes in the standings premium brands.

In the spring of 2008, the chief designer of Mercedes, Peter Pfeiffer retired after a 40 years activity at Mercedes Company.

About Post Author

Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Chris Bangle leaves BMW and auto industry! appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.