BMW will spend more to keep green lead over Mercedes

[Andrew 30]

While developing BMW’s Efficient Dynamics technology is hurting the company’s financials, executives plan to spend more on BMW’s green plan since it gives it a huge competitive advantage over rivals like Mercedes. CFO Stefan Krause said that the cost of developing the Efficient Dynamics program had hit the company hard in the second quarter.

Research and development costs increased by 40 percent to €835 million, while net profit fell 4.3 percent to €753 million.

“Efficient Dynamics delivers a competitive advantage but pricing for these measures will remain a challenge. Over time we will solve it,” Krause told financial analysts August 1.

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said, “We are convinced these measures will pay off in the long term. We are where other automakers want to be.”

Reithofer expects 40 percent of BMW’s new cars to have CO2 emissions of 140g/km or less by the autumn.

BMW recently added twin-turbo diesel engine to the BMW 6-Series which will give it an average fuel economy of 40mpg. The 1-Series range also got 123d with a 2.0 liter, 4-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine that produces an outstanding 201 horsepower. That gives the BMW 123d the ability to do 0-60 in 7.1 seconds with a fuel-economy of 54.3mpg. Of course, only the lucky UK folks get these cars.