New technology will come to the U.S. in 2008, new models later.
Dr. Klaus Draeger |
BMW is a diesel force in the European car market, but in North America, it's stood back while Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have weathered the changes in regulations and technology.
In 2008, though, BMW will re-enter the U.S. diesel market. Recently, TheCarConnection spoke with BMW AG's new board member, Dr. Klaus Draeger, who is responsible for Research & Development and Purchasing. Draeger confirmed that BMW will introduce its first diesel model with "clean diesel technology" in America sometime in 2008.
Draeger confirmed there is much more in the BMW pipeline - including the X6 and a luxury four-door coupe that will arrive before 2010 and will compete with the Mercedes-Benz CLS:
Where are you heading for in the next 5 to 10 years?
We are really going to expand our program with new vehicles in the coming years. The classical BMW models, the 3-, 5-, and 7-Series, make up only half of our production volume. The rest are models that came later into our program. This year we will get the 1-series three-door version and within two years there will also be a new sports active coupe, which will be built in our U.S. operation in South Carolina. This is going to be something that combines the in-command seating position of an X5, but with design lines that are going to remind you more of a coupe.
Then, here is one product there has been quite a lot of speculation about. It is what we call the LSV, luxury sports cruiser. With that product we will have something that will be in terms of design lines closer probably towards the formality of a sedan. We are talking about travel in style, on the one side, but it will have also the BMW typical agility and the BMW typical dynamics. And then it, of course, it will have also the functionality. It will arrive before 2010.
What about new engines?
Our strategy is to give the customer the best performance with…the best mileage per gallon… We will introduce new models with high-precision injection. That will be combined with lean mixture combustion in Europe. We can run these lean-mixture concepts for four- and six-cylinder engines. The reduction in fuel consumption will be around five to ten percent.
Combined with this, we will then also have a sort of hybridization. We are going for electric water pumps and oil pumps, and electrical power steering instead of having a hydraulic pump running all the time.
We will do brake energy recovery for all models. It is a rollout process that starts now with the refreshed 5-Series and will run through the whole of 2007 and onwards.
What about diesels?
In Europe we are having a huge number of diesel cars running in our fleet. They represent 40 percent of the total BMW production. The diesel engines definitely are always the best engines in their class. We just received again the Ward's Engine of the Year award for the 3.0-liter diesel engine and we decided to bring diesel technology to the U.S. as well. We will not limit this and offer vehicles with diesel engines in 50 states in 2008. These are wonderful cars and we meet the Bin5 regulations… We are going to equip the cars with a urea system and SCR technology that we all use from the same suppliers in Germany.
Will you call this Bluetec?
Evidently, that question comes up, but until now we have not decided. We do not say we don't, but we have not decided yet if we will call it Bluetec.
Most important is that the customer gets the BMW diesel engine, and we are not talking only about the exhaust treatment. Important is the typical BMW smooth-running, high power, high-torque engines.
What is your short-term goal, production wise?
We are planning to build 1.4 million cars this year and 1.6 million by 2010. After that it is too much speculation.
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