Low fuel prices have increased the demand for large vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs. Many companies, including General Motors , Ford , Chrysler have benefited from the low fuel prices, because of their strong SUVs and pickup trucks offerings.
The demand for small vehicles always rises when the fuel prices are high. Currently, nearly 33 companies are working on autonomous vehicles. The company should speed up the development of autonomous vehicle technology and acquire the required skills as soon as possible if it does not want to stay behind Google, Ford or Tesla in this area.
Nevertheless, exchange rates still affect exports to other countries and this is where weak euro exchange rate against other currencies, benefits the company. Lower euro exchange rate against the U. The company could push its exports to the U. The market share of the automotive companies is significantly impacted by the timing and frequency of new model releases.
Historically, new models have tended to have major upgrades every 4 or 5 years with only minor modifications in between. However, due to the rising consumer expectations in relation to in-car technology and the competitive nature of the industry, there is an argument to release upgraded models more frequently.
BMW is well-positioned to be able to do this. Despite the fact that the worldwide automotive market is already highly competitive, the competition is further increasing due to the excess of vehicle production, rapid technological changes, new entrants and saturation of the largest markets.
New companies, such as Tesla with its electric cars will make it very hard for BMW to compete in the electric cars segment. In addition, Google, which tries to build self-driving cars is also threatening the traditional automotive industry.
The competition is further fueled by the fact that the global automotive production capacity far exceeds the demand. In , there was an estimated global excess production capacity of 31 million units. Many governments around the world are committed to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and are encouraging fuel efficiency initiatives. In the U. General Motors also benefited from that. Nonetheless, automotive market growth in the U. According to Ford and General Motors, new vehicle sales will slow down or even decline over the next few years due to the oversaturated market.
By bundling the potential opportunities offered by digitalisation, the BMW Group will cement its position as technological leader in this field, too. A clear focus will be placed on high definition digital maps, sensor technology , cloud technology and artificial intelligence , the decisive areas for success in this segment.
We will turn research projects into new kinds of industrial processes, bringing future technology onto the road. Since October , customers can experience the next levels of automated driving innovation and a new quality of premium mobility with the new BMW 7 Series.
With gesture control and its comprehensive connectivity, the BMW flagship is already the benchmark in terms of user interface and connectivity. To further extend its lead in the field of automated driving, the BMW Group will be transferring these technologies to other models during the coming years. New sensor technology and more powerful software will allow rapid progress to be made in the field of automated driving; the BMW iNEXT will set a new benchmark in this area.
New technologies not only make driving more comfortable, they also forge the link between the mobility of the future and all other areas of life. Connectivity is the prerequisite for realising this vision — and it is precisely in this field that ConnectedDrive has been setting standards for several years now.
By converting data into intelligence, we will be enhancing the quality of life in a mobile world. BMW Connected already acts as a personalised companion for our customers, providing a broad array of information to serve their mobility needs.
The system becomes increasingly acquainted with the user's favourite routes and driving habits, thus enabling it to provide warnings of road closures or congestion ahead and suggest alternative routes.
The BMW Group will announce the next steps in enhancing these various services during the current year, consistently and rapidly expanding its mobility services. Apart from the services it is developing in its own right, the BMW Group is also investing in a number of promising start-ups and service providers via BMW i Ventures.
This entity enables the Group to swiftly identify and respond to worldwide mobility trends , a crucial advantage in view of the faster pace of development cycles in the IT sector compared to the automotive world. Traditional business will continue to play a significant role.
The BMW Group expects a transformation that will steadily gather pace, but nevertheless stretch over a long period and develop diversely from one region to the next. This is already fully reflected in the BMW Group's current vehicle architectures, which include all conventional and alternative drivetrain systems. One example of this is the combustion engine , which will continue to play a major role for many years to come.
There will therefore be no let-up in the BMW Group's efforts to improve the efficiency of established processes and continually optimise the technologies involved. Under the banner of Efficient Dynamics NEXT , development work on existing drivetrain technologies continues unabated, always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of combustion engines.
We are working to shape the future of mobility ourselves by merging operative excellence and new ways of thinking within one organisation. At a product level, the BMW Group continues to emulate its highly successful mid- and upper-range segment strategy in the premium class. The BMW 3 Series and the BMW 5 Series, including their various derivative versions, have long since achieved and retained segment leadership thanks to technological innovation, compelling product quality and emotional design.
After leading the premium segment for more than ten consecutive years, the BMW brand is now poised to strengthen its position on a sustainable basis at the top end of its product portfolio, where rates of return are at their highest. The BMW M brand will also strive to continue its year-long success story with its range of highly emotional and coveted vehicles. Since it was founded in , the legendary M GmbH has been a pioneer in high-performance vehicles, producing vehicles which offer unparalleled performance, agility precision and the presence to own the road.
While the legendary M1 remains unforgotten, the latest addition to the fold, the BMW M2 , is currently impressing both press and public with its superb driving dynamics and superior performance, broadening the BMW M product range in a segment that is currently growing strongly. A Further expansion of the M product range is already being planned. Furthermore, the BMW Group intends to expand its range of powerful M Performance models within the higher volume segments, with a view to capitalising on the growth and earnings potential of the BMW M brand.
With a clear focus on people and their environment, the BMW Group aims to deliver solutions that are both ground-breaking and responsible. We will lead the BMW Group into a new era, one in which we will transform and shape both individual mobility and the entire sector in a permanent way.
The BMW Group sees the changes sweeping across the world of mobility through digitalisation as an excellent opportunity to make mobile life simpler, safer and more convenient, thereby inspiring completely new customer groups. In the coming years, the Group will focus on broadening its technological expertise , expanding the scope of digital connectivity between people, vehicles and services and actively strengthening sustainable mobility.
The technological focus will therefore be on consistently achieving further advances in the fields of electric mobility and automated driving. The BMW Group has proved its credentials as a pioneer and visionary driver of innovation with the BMW i brand, of which more than 50, vehicles have already been sold, as well as with the latest version of its connected and intelligent flagship BMW 7 Series. The BMW Group's strategy will become driving reality, ushering in the next decade in the form of a revolutionary new BMW i model that will raise premium individual mobility to previously unknown levels.
Under the banner of BMW iNEXT , the BMW Group brings new forms of automated driving and digital connectivity together with a new generation of electric mobility, lightweight construction and trailblazing interior design that will set new standards for the customer's mobility experience. The brand develops trendsetting technologies and services, subsequently transferring them to the BMW model range.
The leading role of BMW i in terms of development is already being reflected in the increased scale of electrification in other models. The current plug-in hybrids are in their third generation and are technological market leaders. With the fourth generation, the electric range will be extended. Development of the fifth generation, which will bring further progress in all areas is already underway.
This technology transfer is the basis for the plug-in hybrid BMW iPerformance models. From onwards the BMW Group will have seven models in its range, which will be either purely electrically powered, like the BMW i3, or feature a combination of combustion engine and electric motor as plug-in hybrid solutions. Further models are due to follow in the coming years, including a plug-in hybrid MINI.
By the end of , the Group's electric vehicle portfolio will be expanded to include a BMW i3 that features increased battery capacity and additional range.
The BMW Group also continues to develop hydrogen fuel-cell technology ; the current test vehicles achieve a range up to kilometres. The company believes that a variety of drivetrain systems will exist alongside each other in the future.
This expectation is fully reflected in the BMW Group's current vehicle architecture , which includes all conventional and alternative drivetrain systems. This guarantees maximum flexibility at all stages of development and production and, thanks to benefits of scale, is also highly cost efficient. Project i 2. The fact that the BMW Group has already made so much progress in e-mobility is largely due to project i, through which the BMW Group established itself as a true pioneer of sustainable mobility.
Project i enabled the company to build up the necessary expertise in electric mobility early on, whilst at the same time ensuring it could be realised on an industrial scale. With project i 2. By bundling the potential opportunities offered by digitalisation, the BMW Group will cement its position as technological leader in this field, too.
A clear focus will be placed on high definition digital maps, sensor technology , cloud technology and artificial intelligence , the decisive areas for success in this segment. We will turn research projects into new kinds of industrial processes, bringing future technology onto the road. Since October , customers can experience the next levels of automated driving innovation and a new quality of premium mobility with the new BMW 7 Series. With gesture control and its comprehensive connectivity, the BMW flagship is already the benchmark in terms of user interface and connectivity.
To further extend its lead in the field of automated driving, the BMW Group will be transferring these technologies to other models during the coming years.
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