There was another spate of German media reports at the weekend that the Quandt family is planning to sell its controlling stake in BMW. Meanwhile, the German company is starting to rev up its New Mini and restructure after the Rover debacle.Again there have been denials by BMW spokespeople that the Quandts want to sell, but speculation about the future of BMW and some of its top management continues because of uncertainty about the final cost of disposing of the group's British Rover unit to the Phoenix consortium - plus indications of difficulties being experienced by the BMW brand itself. The usually reliable Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Saturday that BMW's operating profit in the current financial year would be reduced by about 260 million pounds because of additional losses at Rover during 2000. There have been indications of BMW's own brand market share declining in some key territories as the competition in the premium car market hots up. However, the company announced at the weekend that it is forecasting sales of 800,000 BMW cars in 2000, up by nearly 50,000 units from 751,272 units in 1999. Already over the first four months BMW brand unit sales have been running 8% higher than for the same period last year. However, with some automotive analysts now saying that four million units a year is the minimum volume that global car makers now need to be competitive, BMW is still regarded by many as vulnerable to a takeover or merger. Announcements are expected over the next few weeks about how BMW will restructure after getting rid of Rover - particularly how it plans to build up its volumes and expand its model range. Training builds have started at the Cowley plant in the UK of the new-generation Mini, which BMW is retaining with production targeted at as many as 125,000 units annually. With production of the Rover 75 being transferred to Longbridge soon under the deal with Phoenix, BMW will have considerable excess capacity at Cowley, but denies that this will be used to build Rolls-Royce cars or assemble BMWs from KD kits. Volkswagen is due to give up the Rolls-Royce brand to BMW in 2003, and BMW has promised a decision later on where it will locate future production of the prestige British brand. There is speculation in the UK that Cowley may assemble the new BMW X5 4x4, or perhaps the Z3 sports car, or may go into volume production of a new entry-level front-wheel-drive BMW based on the R30 model it was developing for the Rover brand.
 Article Date: May 15, 2000
Car Accociations: MINI,NEW_MINI,
Hits: 1004 | 
