Archive for BMW

This covered-up BMW concept was snapped by the lucky guys over at E90Post.com. BMW has talked numerous times about a new sustainable sports car concept that they will unveil at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2009 and this is most likely it.

It’s supposed to be some kind of electric sports car called the Z Vision Concept or Vision Z Concept. Technically, kidney grilles would be needed in this car since there would be no internal combustion engine at the front to cool down and yes, you can see this reflected in the seemingly lack of lower bumper air intakes, but its a BMW trademark and it’s even been given a shark nose kind of look to it.

They say this new concept previews the next generation 6-Series design cues, and if that is true it looks pretty damn good. An additional rumour is that BMW may add a RX-8-esque 4-door variant to the 6-Series range and call it the 6-Series Gran Turismo, thus reflected in this concept – it will be a four-door with small rear-hinged rear doors.

Look after the jump for a full photo gallery.

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Could BMW’s new sub-brand for its electric cars be called the Isetta? There’s strong indication that it might be, considering that they’ve recently produced a promotional TV commercial that seems to seek to both introduce the old Isetta to the younger generation and to remind oldies of the small little BMW with the door that opened in front. The video’s main purpose is actually to promote the BMW Museum in Munich. Given that the Isetta was the original BMW compact city car, badging its new MegaCity/Project i car with the brand seems quite suitable. Word is that the new Isetta brand will be spelled “i-Setta”, though there’s no official release from BMW confirming this as far as I know, just hearsay from sources said to be close to BMW. Look after the jump to watch the new Isetta video!

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As it is about to take a leap into a new future of electric cars and M-badged SUVs, BMW revisits its past with this video that it produced about the BMW 1500 from the 1960s. The BMW 1500 was one of the BMW New Class line of compact sedans and it featured a 1,499cc single-cam engine producing 80 horsepower at 5,700rpm which was really not bad at that time. The 1500 in 1961 was also the first BMW with a Hofmeister kink. Look after the jump to watch the video.

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BMW’s Project i will be launched under the BMW subframe not unlike the BMW M badge, said its CEO Norberg Reithofer earlier this week.

We’ve already seen a modern BMW electric car with the trial-basis MINI E, and speculation was arife on whether BMW would start a new fourth brand for its electric cars, market the cars under the BMW brand, or sell them all as MINIs, since the MINI E is a MINI. The first car under Project i is commonly referred to as the MegaCity and will be released in the first half of the next decade, which is within 5 year’s time.

Lithium-ion batteries for Project i will be sourced from a Korean joint venture between Bosch and Samsung SDI called SB LiMotive. SB LiMotive also owns Cobasys, the company which supplies batteries to GM for its Volt.

BMW is said to be in talks with PSA Peugeot Citroen to expand its technical collaboration to electric cars as well. PSA already had some sort of deal with Mitsubishi though, with Mitsubishi set to supply the Mitsubishi i electric car to the French company to be sold in Europe under the Peugeot and Citroen badges.

Hamann’s take on the new BMW 5-Series GT still seems as much as wrong as the original. And it still looks like a puppy somehow. I dunno, maybe, just maybe this particular model will look better in the metal… maybe. That’s still some pretty wishful thinking. Can’t wait for the F10 sedan to be out. Look after the jump for a full gallery showing the car with various different Hamann wheels.

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In this video released by the boys at Munich, BMW’s Head of Project for the BMW X1 Peter Krist talks about BMW’s smallest X model to date, which is quite close to size to the current generation and soon to be replaced BMW X3. It’s also the first X1 to be available in rear wheel drive as well as all-wheel drive.

Nothing odd about the X1 to be, there are plenty who want an SUV but want it closer to a sedan’s driving feel and don’t want to handle something overly large – so the X3 has room to move up a size right between the X1 and the X5. There’s quite some room between the X1’s 2,760mm wheelbase and the X5’s 2,933mm wheelbase – somewhere around 2,850mm perhaps, which is a decent size up from the current X3’s 2,795mm wheelbase.

Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Peter Krist on the new BMW X1 SAV

New shocker in the Formula One scene – BMW has announced that it will be exiting F1 at the end of 2009, after a 3 year run in the team’s current incarnation, the BMW Sauber F1 team. In the middle of 2005, BMW acquired the Swiss team Sauber and took to the starting grid under the team’s new name.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to meet expectations in the current season. Nevertheless, our ten years of Formula One experience have had a major impact on our development engineers. We have racing to thank for numerous technological innovations as well as the competitive spirit that drives us to develop mass-produced cars,” said board member Dr. Klaus Draeger.

NEW VIDEO: BMW withdraws from F1

“The main reason for this decision was not our current performance in Formula One racing or the general economic situation. It was solely the company’s strategic realignment. Premium will increasingly be defined in terms of sustainability and environmental compatibility. This is an area in which we want to remain in the lead. In line with our Strategy Number ONE, we are continually reviewing all projects and initiatives to check them for future viability and sustainability. Our Formula One campaign is thus less a key promoter for us. Mario Theissen has been in charge of our motor sports program since 1999. We have scored a large number of successes in this period, including some in Formula One racing. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mario Theissen and his team for this,” said chairman Dr. Norbert Reithofer.

Looks like the green movement killed yet another Formula One team, as similiar reasons were given by Honda when it decided to exit the sport. BMW will continue to participate in other sports like the ALMS, and of course, Formula BMW. These activities will continue to be supervised by Mario Theissen. The focus in the future will be more on programs like Efficient Dynamics.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the team. Perhaps someone will buy them over, and one man rumoured to possibly step in and take over the team is Peter Sauber, the man whose name is the other half of the team’s name. Whatever it is, BMW will work to find solutions for all current F1 employees, and someone else taking over is definitely one of them. Our national oil company Petronas could continue their F1 sponsorship with this new team and their new owners, if they choose to remain in the sport.

BMW has released a series of videos of the new flagship BMW 760Li, powered by a new 6.0 liter twin-turbocharged V12 and an 8-speed automatic transmission from ZF. The new F01/F02 7-Series as of now still remains offered with a 100% turbocharged engine line-up. The 740i, 750i, 760i, 730d, 740d, they’re all turbocharged, with all except one engine featuring two turbochargers instead of one. But BMW needs a 730i/730Li model to compete with the S300 in countries like ours here, and this model is most likely going to be powered by a normally aspirated 3.0 liter N54 or an N55, depending on whether direct injection is offered or not. Anyway watch the video after the jump.

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The new BMW X1 must be a very important car for BMW as for the first time ever with BMW press packs, I was having trouble handling the amount of photos they released! They released over 150 photos of a brown and a white X1 and the total file size for the hi-res pix was over 1,5GB, which I had to download then resize down to about 150MB before uploading.

The X1 measures 4454mm in length, 1798mm wide (2006mm with mirrors included), and 1545mm tall with a 2760mm wheelbase. In comparison, the X3 measures 4570mm long, with a 2795mm wheelbase. So it’s definitely a smaller vehicle, but the wheelbase is quite similiar to the current E90 sedan.

It’s also the first BMW SUV to come with a rear wheel drive version as well as xDrive. The most economical version is the X1 sDrive18d with rear wheel drive, putting out only 136g/km of CO2 and using only a measly 5.2 liters per 100km, equivalent to 54.3 UK mpg. The following are the various X1 variants:

As you can see the European range is mostly diesel-centric, with the sole petrol engine being the 3.0 liter inline-6, tuned to make 258 horses, hence the “28i” rating instead of “30i” which usually puts out about 272 horses in their latest incarnations. The rest are diesel, and ditching the weight and losses of xDrive reduces fuel consumption by about 0.1L per 100km with the 20d and 18d models. All manual models come with auto start-stop and a gearshift indicator.

The interior features a 40:20:40 split backrest at the rear which can extend the 420 liter cargo area up to 490 liters if you set the backrest angle to something more vertical, or if you just drop them down, storage goes up to 1,350 liters. The rest of the interior is a typical BMW and you don’t get some of the more modern interior bits such as the shift by wire gear knob and the Black Panel multi-info LCD, but you do get the new hard disk based iDrive system.

Look after the jump for a full press release, some videos, and a full photo gallery of the new BMW X1.

Click here to read the rest of New BMW X1 compact SUV officially unveiled!

I know it has only been since this morning that we checked out the latest Facebook teaser shots of the new BMW X1, but it appears that a full low-res photo gallery of over 40 photos have been leaked onto the internet.

The photo gallery features two different X1s with slightly different bodywork. The one in Marrakesh Brown seems to be a higher spec version since it has a little more detailing to the body such as a thin chrome bar across the front bumper, and the other seemingly lower-spec X1 is in white.

Also notice there are two slightly different versions of the headlamp – the one on the brown car has that odd angled square inner lense that we saw on the previously released teaser images, while the white BMW X1 has more regular looking lenses in its headlamps.

It looks quite pleasant, a mesh of various BMW design cues. You’ve got the new L-shaped tail lamps, and you can see hints of the F01 7-Series, the current gen X3 in overall shape but sculpted with angles and curves from the BMW E90 LCI.

The interior has tell-tale signs of it being a low-end model – some of the high-end interior features found in recent BMWs are missing, such as the shift by wire gear lever, the new steering wheel design with thumb scrollers, black panel technology on the instrument panel – all of these are missing but instead features elements that you can associate more with the E90-ish generation of BMWs.

Look after the jump for the full leaked gallery.

Click here to read the rest of New BMW X1: low-res production gallery unveiled!