BMW considers adding a ‘green’ brand

Posted Mon Jan 21 2008 9:34 AM by Kenneth Hall

Since the release of its official strategy back in September, media sources around the world have been speculating that BMW was looking at either launching its own new brand or acquiring one to help expansion. BMW officials, however, have adamantly denied rumors of a possible fourth brand within the group but this may all be about to change. Tough new emissions standards planned for both the U.S. and Europe will force BMW to increase the number of eco-friendly cars it produces, but the image associated with such ‘green’ vehicles doesn’t correspond with any of its existing brands, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce.

One solution, BMW sales and marketing exec Stefan Krause told Automotive News, is the creation of a new green brand. BMW would then be able to sell more FWD cars and crossovers as well as full hybrids and fuel-cell models without impacting on its tradition of building sporty cars.

"We cannot take the blue out of BMW and change it to green," said Krause. "Maybe we could add a fourth brand."

Other options include transforming Mini into the new green brand, buying another brand such as Saab or Volvo, or reviving an old British brand such as Riley or Triumph. Unfortunately, none of these options were deemed appropriate and all have been rejected, Krause revealed.

There is some hope for the new brand. Current BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer is regarded as the ‘greenie’ of the carmaker’s six-member management board and he did previously hint at the possibility of a fourth brand during the September official strategy review.

Reader Comments

Mon Jan 21 2008 10:31 AM
chris says

Finally.
Mon Jan 21 2008 12:04 PM
James says

I would love to see Volvo as BMW's fourth, green brand...
Mon Jan 21 2008 12:19 PM
chris says

james, if you believe that BMW would buy volvo, and at the same time, they are looking to make a green brand, that means that volvo will be made boring and pitted against the upcoming prius brand. I dont want to live in that world.
Mon Jan 21 2008 3:53 PM
Roy says

I agree to the extent that Volvo has an established brand image of "safe," rather than green. This would be as bad as changing Mini from "fun," Rolls-Royce from "Ultimate" and BMW itself from "Satisfying." I think the answer might be to have a sub-brand (like Toyota's Synergy) that allows you to add green benefits to each of the existing brands. It would be interesting to see what kind of brand awareness exists for Synergy and compare that to the awareness for Prius. If it's close, that would probably be the way for BMW to go, too. Otherwise, we'll end up with some horrible Frankenstein's monster of re-badged Minis, BMWs and Rollers, or worse.
Mon Jan 21 2008 5:14 PM
James says

I disagree about Volvo not being green brand. Long before global warming and ecological problems became regular in news, Volvo had something 'green' in almost any brochure - how they achieved this, and how they did that - to make your new car also a responsible choice from the environmental perspective. Remember, in essence Volvo is Swedish, so such things are almost automatic. And, let's not forget the recent plug-in Volvo's, electric concepts and those flexi-fuel initiatives. I see future Volvo as safe, practical, green, Scandinavian-ish brand. In essence - INTELLIGENT brand for intelligent customers.
Mon Jan 21 2008 5:17 PM
James says

And why do people immediately think, that future green cars definitely have to look like Prius? It's just nonsense!

MotorAuthority