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Originally Posted by Sol01
so that is the FWD 1 series in your profile picture then ? anyway we would see it in few weeks time. nothing to get excited about for us here . I suppose we won't even bother to open a separate thread for FWD 1, as it is not worthy of BMW badge ![Roll Eyes (Sarcastic)](images/smilies/rolleyes.gif) . also interesting to see that BMW second quarter profit was much lower than the year before, I assume a lot of those extra expenses on R&D that was mentioned in your reports has something to do with this upcoming FWD model. let's hope that is not going to translate into spending cuts on main models like 5 series and 3 series since you have to keep your shareholders and accountants happy by keeping the costs down to maximise your profit ![Thumbs Down](images/smilies/thumbdown.gif)
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It all depends on who is interested in such a concept and I am sure that there will be people here that could be interested and perhaps there will be an influx of would-be first time BMW owners who migrate to BimmerPost for more information?
It is up to the moderators to whether they will showcase the details of the concept as it is entirely BMW related I see no reason why they should not.
Profits may be down at the current time but for an independent company like BMW you have to spend money in order to make money , and that is exactly what they have done to support their future. If you look back when others were spending money on vanity projects inlcuding some which were renowned disasters , BMW focused on EfficientDynamics.
BMW had a two year advantage over Audi and Mercedes-Benz on the integration of efficiency measures. The same goes for current expenditure the combined MINI/FWD architecture for example is deemed to support 600,000 units of combined MINI and BMW FWD cars.
Then you have the CFRP venture with SGL Carbon which in prospect will spread to the next generation of BMW's starting with the 7er , again BMW will have the advantage because they are moving to volume production of CFRP. And then you have the BMW i initiative.
Again the CFRP is integral to the cars that will spearhead the brand but the budget is not just about the cars and manufacturing. The inititive covers not only the technology and network but also infrastructure. BMW know that the infrastructure such as charging points etc are integral to the success of the BMWi brand. And that they are currently working on making sure that infrastructure is available in many key locations and markets by the time the
i3 is launched in 2013. That is one of the key surprising things about BMWi they are not waiting for someone to take that initiative to accomodate. They are rocketing ahead with contractors to make sure BMWi owners do not face the limited resources as some EV's available today.
You may mock my terms of "revolutionary" but that is exactly what BMW do , create the extraordinary out of the ordinary in order to fullfill its goal.
You might hate the idea of a FWD BMW Compactive Sports Tourer but there are people out there , looking forward , possibly for the first time to have a BMW that is suitable, spacious and affordable for my family and then they will multiply. That entire segment is growing within Europe and with a projected increase of 45% BMW could take 10,20 or even 30% of that market.
Which is important because the CST is a vehicle that will make money for BMW.
Then we can move onto the challenges of the next decade.