All BMW articles
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FeatureBMW to raise stake in Chinese joint venture
Shareholders of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings (CBA) have approved the sale of a 25% stake in BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) to joint venture (JV) partner BMW.The German carmaker said it intended to increase its stake in BBA to 75% from 50% last year. CBA agreed to the change, with the ...
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FeaturePacking a punch
Electric cars could revolutionise transport by providing a cheaper, safer and more environmentally friendly way to travel. The International Energy Agency forecasts that there will be 13m electric vehicles (EVs) on the road globally by 2020, while PwC Autofacts predicts that 55% of all new vehicle sales will be fully ...
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FeatureBMW Regensburg named as ‘manufacturing lighthouse’
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has named BMW’s Regensburg car assembly plant as a “manufacturing lighthouse” of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, thanks to the factory’s innovations in logistics.The plant, in south-eastern Germany, is one of just seven worldwide awarded the honour this year for successful implementation of industry 4.0 ...
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FeatureHonda to halt UK production during Brexit
Japanese OEM Honda is to suspend production at its British plant for six days in April after the UK leaves the European Union on March 29.The decision follows an assessment of how best to prepare for any logistics and border problems following Brexit.“These contingency provisions have been put in place ...
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FeatureInnovation and smart tech: Why BMW is driving both
Handling 31m parts and producing almost 10,000 vehicles each day, BMW is increasingly looking to digitalisation and Industry 4.0 innovations to help it organise its logistics more flexibly…
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FeatureA problem shared
Packaging experts working across the automotive industry are continually looking for better visibility when tracking the container and its contents to the point of delivery and back
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FeatureDealing with change
In recent years, a number of shifts in the industry have begun to affect traditional dealership models, changing the types of relationships that exist between dealers, OEMs and customers. As OEMs move increasingly towards selling more vehicles directly to customers, there are growing indications of significant impacts for traditional dealers. ...
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FeatureConnecting the dots
Buy a new BMW, and it’s no surprise to find it stuffed with hi-tech telematics. Real-time traffic information, GPS navigation, automatic speed limit display, rear vision display, parking assistance, smartphone integration, intelligent diagnostics and status display – all of these and more are fast becoming part of the modern driving ...
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FeatureChina to cut tariffs on US vehicle imports
The Chinese government says it will suspend additional duties of 25% on US-made vehicles and automotive parts for three months starting January 1, amid signs China and the United States are de-escalating their trade dispute.“This is a good signal that [they] are on track to solve the trade war,” Wang ...
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FeatureGround broken at new BMW logistics centre in Austria
A ground-breaking ceremony was held this week to mark the official start of construction of a new logistics centre at Steyr, Austria, to serve BMW’s nearby engine plant. Contract logistics services provider Industrie-Logistik-Linz will rent the property and use it to consolidate activities from several of BMW Steyr’s external warehouses ...
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FeatureBMW ups the pace on industry 4.0 technology
BMW Group is to expand its use of industry 4.0 innovations in its production logistics, it has revealed. In 2015, BMW Group joined forces with the Fraunhofer Institute IML to develop the first self-driving Smart Transport Robots (STR). Three years later, the carmaker is increasingly relying on innovations from industry ...
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FeatureGerman OEMs meet Trump amid tariff confusion
Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW executives have this week outlined a series of planned investments in the US to administration officials, after meeting with President Donald Trump. Their meetings took place amid uncertainty over trade conditions, after the president’s tweet that China had agreed to end 40% duties on imports of ...
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FeatureBMW supports cobalt miners in Congo
BMW has signed up to a pilot project to improve conditions for cobalt miners, their families and neighbouring communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).With batteries in high demand given the boom in electrical vehicles, global companies such as BMW have been turning their attention to how cobalt ...
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FeatureShifting gear
Brazilian vehicle sales have been gathering pace recently, as the country tentatively recovers from its long recession. Light vehicle sales have shown some growth, while bus and truck sales have positively motored ahead. Vehicle sales this year, however, have been tarnished somewhat by stalling exports – especially to Argentina, which ...
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FeatureChugging or changing?
Demand for rail transport is growing faster than service providers can keep up with, according to Siegfried Jung, head of planning and steering vehicle dispatch and transport at BMW Group.[related_topics align="right" border="yes"]Jung says that increased demand for rail transport, from both public and industrial sectors, currently exceeds capacity. Rail infrastructure ...
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FeatureCEE auto markets gear up for sustained growth
Sustained growth, a shift from low-cost to high-tech manufacturing, plus an ambition to lead automotive market trends such as electromobility and autonomous driving are now characterising the key economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), delegates heard at the Automotive Logistics Central & Eastern Europe summit in Budapest today (Wednesday ...
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FeatureGM poised to sell St Petersburg plant
US carmaker GM is close to selling its plant in St Petersburg to another automotive manufacturer, with the final agreement due to be signed at the end of this year. According to Sergey Movchan, deputy governor of St Petersburg, the new owner plans to revive finished vehicle assembly at the ...
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FeatureBMW produces its millionth 3D-printed part
BMW has produced its millionth 3D-printed part since starting to use the manufacturing technology, also known as additive manufacturing, a decade ago. It is one of 200,000 parts the OEM will 3D-print this year – a 42% increase on the number produced last year. While the number is low compared ...
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FeatureJLR to open engineering office in Budapest
Jaguar Land Rover has announced it will open a technical engineering office in Budapest, Hungary, early next year to support the management of its European supply chain. It follows the official opening of its €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) assembly plant in Nitra (pictured), in neighbouring Slovakia, on October 25.Nick Rogers, ...
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FeatureAudi to develop closed loop for battery recycling
German carmaker Audi has begun working with Belgian materials technology and recycling partner Umicore to investigate the potential for recycling the materials in electric car batteries. The companies are looking to adopt a closed-loop approach in which valuable elements such as cobalt, nickel and copper from end-of-life batteries are recovered ...