The two-mode hybrid system, co-developed with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, uses twin electric motors which can either be used to boost acceleration, charge the batteries or as a generator to mutually power each other. The two-mode active transmission is based on an ECVT electrical continuously variable transmission. The two operating modes, one of which has been optimised for low, the other for high speeds, are supplemented by fixed transmission ratios.

Fitting in with BMW’s new EfficientDynamics focus, the modular hybrid system can be easily adapted to other models and should make its way across more cars in coming years. The X6 Active Hybrid is visually differentiated from the regular X6 thanks to unique badging, light blue paint scheme and distinct 21in wheels.

Click to Enlarge

Official Press Release:
• World debut of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid – combining significant enhancement of efficiency with Sheer Driving Pleasure so typical of BMW.

• The close and direct link of concepts combining the new Sports Activity Coupe with innovative BMW ActiveHybrid technology ensures an authentic match of design and technology in every respect. The potential of BMW’s ActiveHybrid system develops its optimum effect in the unique concept of the Sports Activity Coupe. This holistic, all-round approach sets the stage for an all-new driving experience.

• The BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid, the BMW in the world of hybrid cars.

• BMW ActiveHybrid is far superior to conventional hybrid vehicles in terms of driving dynamics. Its fuel consumption and emission ratings are up to 20 per cent better than on a comparable car with conventional drivetrain technology.

• The combination with innovative hybrid technology offers the most sporting and dynamic rendition of a BMW X Car. Design language typical of BMW takes up the superior driving dynamics of the Sports Activity Coupe and visualises this superiority through authentic design and a unique look. Indeed, the extravagant design of the body combines the sporting elegance of a BMW Coupe with the striking DNA of BMW X and provides a clear reference to the innovative drive concept.

Technology:

• The driving experience in BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid corresponds to the character of a typical BMW based on supreme dynamism and performance on the road. The car responds directly, spontaneously and with outstanding precision to the driver’s commands, offering the driver perfect feedback at all times through touch effects and acoustic signals, like on a car with a conventional combustion engine.

• BMW ActiveHybrid is a particular highlight of BMW EfficientDynamics, BMW’s trendsetting development strategy for today’s world. Introducing this technology, BMW is taking the next step in the ongoing reduction of fuel consumption and emissions. BMW ActiveHybrid is based on a modular concept following the strategy of “Best of Hybrid” to integrate the most appropriate, optimum components in each case in different concepts.

• Interacting with the two-mode active transmission, the concept, through electrical support, offers two operating modes, one for setting off and driving at low speeds, one for higher speeds. This ensures optimum use of the torque generated as a function of driving conditions.

• The innovative two-mode active transmission allows variable power transmission via the power split incorporating planetary gearsets. In addition, the active transmission incorporates an electric drive system and enables the vehicle to drive at fixed transmission ratios within one system. This combines the driving dynamics and efficiency of the combustion engine and the electric drive system in an innovative, intelligent manner.

Exterior design:

• The powerful presence of the car’s body forms an ideal match with the flat, sleek flow of the greenhouse roofline. Indeed, this flowing roofline is a characteristic feature of the car’s coupe silhouette, just like the short front overhang, the long wheelbase and the long rear overhang.

• In its design, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid boasts all the DNA and genes so characteristic of the BMW X philosophy. The visual balance of the front and rear wheels to be admired clearly from the side makes a clear reference to BMW xDrive, BMW’s intelligent all-wheel-drive technology.

• The second element dominating the design of the body is the clear orientation to the wheels, the muscular wheel arches and the large wheels clearly bearing testimony to the stable position and roadholding of the car.

• The dynamically rising contour line at the side and the growing distance between the shoulder and the sill-line as the vehicle moves back create a dynamic wedge shape.

• The striking front view with a clear focus on the vehicle’s width again provides the typical look of a BMW X car further emphasised by the extra-large BMW kidney grille also serving as the air intake with its robust slats.

• The engine compartment lid comes with clearly shaped contours sub-divided by sharp lines and tapering towards the BMW kidney grille, as well as a powerful curvature at the top with that striking BMW powerdome.

• Through their unique shape and design, the D-pillars provide a clear expression of power and stability. The innovative design of the rear lights, in turn, emphasises the sheer width of the car, while horizontal lines highlight the wide track.

• The underfloor protection panels front and rear are made of brushed aluminium, the rear underfloor panel moving out when required and covering the tailpipes on BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid while driving on electric power only.

• Door cutout trim with blue stripes and the name “BMW ActiveHybrid” clearly refer to the unique drive concept of this equally unique vehicle. The light colour of the body, in turn, forms a clear contrast to the dark window graphics, and the 21-inch wheels come in innovative, three-dimensional rim design.

Unique and Only from BMW: Hybrid Technology with Sheer Driving Pleasure. BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid.

An innovative vehicle concept and equally innovative drivetrain technology are now coming together in a unique car the world has never seen before: BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is the world’s first Sports Activity Coupe to feature a special concept of hybrid drive likewise never seen before – and all this from Germany’s premium car manufacturer.

The result is the first BMW in the hybrid world, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid combining Sheer Driving Pleasure with significant enhancement of all-round efficiency. Through its drive concept alone, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid allows far greater driving dynamics than a conventional hybrid car and at the same time reduces fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent versus a comparable car running on a combustion engine alone.

The innovative drivetrain and the unique concept of the Sports Activity Coupe unparalleled the world over form an ideal match. BMW ActiveHybrid technology has indeed been developed especially for a particularly dynamic car in this segment and for extensive use far beyond city traffic. In terms of its size, character and driving dynamics, the BMW Sports Activity Coupe is simply ideal for bringing out the full potential of BMW ActiveHybrid technology, combining an elegant and dynamically flowing roofline with the features so typical of a BMW X car. In its design it clearly bears out the full DNA of BMW X, while interpreting the character of these cars in a uniquely sporting manner.

Combining the qualities of electric drive and BMW driving dynamics to provide an unprecedented driving experience.

BMW ActiveHybrid for the first time combines the combustion engine and two high-performance electric motors to allow use of the greater efficiency of hybrid technology over a much larger speed range than with a conventional hybrid vehicle. A further unique point is the driving experience provided by BMW ActiveHybrid reflecting the specific features and characteristics of electric drive together with the proven features of a combustion engine from BMW.

Responding directly and immediately to the driver’s commands when setting off, the electric drivetrain contributes its special qualities right from the start. Then, continuing the process of acceleration, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid offers a perfect symbiosis of the drivetrain performance required and appropriate touch-based and acoustic feedback to the driver never seen before on a hybrid vehicle. The result is a driving experience at all speeds with that dynamic development of power and performance so typical of a BMW engine interacting with the particularly precise and fast-acting automatic transmission.

BMW ActiveHybrid: the next step in the BMW EfficientDynamics development strategy. Offering enhancement of both all-round economy and driving dynamics, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid fits perfectly into the BMW EfficientDynamics development strategy. Indeed, implementing this strategy with full consistency, BMW is able to offer cars in all segments through the current model range ranking right at the top against the competition in terms of both performance and efficiency.

BMW ActiveHybrid is a firm part of the BMW EfficientDynamics development strategy. Introducing this technology, BMW is taking the next step in consistently reducing both fuel consumption and emissions. BMW ActiveHybrid is based on a modular principle following the strategy of “Best of Hybrid” to integrate the optimum components in each case in various vehicle concepts. And pursuing this strategy, BMW, with its first full-hybrid car, is now taking the next step towards lasting and sustainable mobility based on Sheer Driving Pleasure.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is the result of the consistent development of attractive vehicle concepts and drivetrain technologies. Inventing the Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV), BMW has already revolutionised the market by creating a complete, brand-new segment where previously there was only the sports utility vehicle (SUV). And given their supreme agility and driving dynamics, both the BMW X5 and the BMW X3 have now gained a dominating position in this segment.

Now the concept of a Sports Activity Coupe shows how the range of BMW X models so successful the world over might be enlarged by another exclusive variant, while at the same time presenting a further possibility of experiencing the sporting performance so typical of the brand in completely new style.

A further highlight is BMW’s outstanding competence in the area of drivetrain development, setting the basis for combining an innovative driving experience with outstanding efficiency. Once again, therefore, BMW is becoming the trendsetter in a market segment which shows particularly dynamic growth.

A hybrid car with that typical BMW character requires innovative technology.

The objective to combine that Sheer Driving Pleasure so typical of BMW with a significant reduction of fuel consumption and emissions in BMW’s first full hybrid, called for the development of innovative technology offering a synthesis of the combustion engine and the electric motor.

To make this process of development as efficient as possible, the BMW Group has joined forces with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler to form the Global Hybrid Cooperation serving to develop the next generation of hybrid drive systems. These three equal partners pool their know-how and resources in the GM, DaimlerChrysler and BMW Hybrid Development Center in Troy (Michigan, USA, concentrating in the process on a flexible system concept allowing each of the companies involved to integrate the particular concept, design and construction of their cars in the new technology, focusing on the specific features of each brand. Precisely this is why the technology of the two-mode active transmission created through this cooperation is part the BMW ActiveHybrid modular development system.

Optimised use of energy and superior power in every situation.

The innovative power transmission featured by BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid combines two compact, high-performance electric motors with a transmission using fixed transmission ratios. These drive systems are connected to one another by three planetary gearsets allowing a power split covering the drive forces of the combustion engine and the electric motors in two transmission ranges and thus ensuring a level of variability quite impossible on a conventional hybrid drivetrain thanks to the combination of the two drive sources able to provide optimum power and maximum efficiency under all driving conditions and power requirements from the driver.

The system referred to on account of its two operating modes as the two-mode active transmission also comprises a high-performance battery, power electronics with an integrated inverter module, and the cables required.

The two-mode active transmission is based on an ECVT electrical continuously variable transmission. The two operating modes, one of which has been optimised for low, the other for high speeds, are supplemented by fixed transmission ratios.

The two power-split ECVT sections allow the drivetrain to run at continuously variable speeds and ensure full, highly efficient hybrid functions throughout the complete operating range of the car, the innovative system in BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid thus serving to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent compared with a comparable BMW running on a combustion engine alone.

Given the two-mode system, the electric motors are furthermore very compact in their dimensions, facilitating integration into the overall vehicle as well as a minimum increase in weight, which is lower in the case of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid than with conventional hybrid cars offering comparable power.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid can be driven on electric power only, on the combustion engine alone, or with a combination of both power units. Depending on driving conditions, the electric motors may also be used for both accelerating and regenerative application of the brakes, in which case the brake forces generated when coasting and when applying the brakes flowi to the high-volt energy storage unit to provide an increase in electric power.

This energy subsequently available for further use need not be generated by the combustion engine and is therefore available virtually free of charge.

Already using this principle in a similar manner on production cars featuring Brake Energy Regeneration, BMW is able to ensure efficient energy management and maintain the battery at a high charge level. On the road, the support provided by the electric motors in this way referred to as “boosting” serves, first, to give the car incomparable spontaneity and a direct response and, second, to significantly reduce fuel consumption.

BMW ActiveHybrid comes in where conventional hybrid drive reaches its limit.

Conventional hybrid systems allow efficient motoring only in relatively small or medium-sized vehicles at relatively low speeds. This is because most of the power coming from the combustion engine has to be conveyed most of the time via the electrical path of the transmission and because of the use of a high level of electric power. A car with enhanced dynamics, performance and running speeds would therefore require a larger combustion engine calling for less efficient, larger and heavier electric motors.

In the power split drive mode, also referred to as the output branched concept, one of the two electric motors acts as a generator, converting some of the engine’s power into electrical current subsequently fed to the battery or the second electric motor. The second electric motor then converts such power coming from the first electric motor or from the battery back into mechanical power for the output drive shaft on the transmission.

Two-mode technology varies the balance of electrical and mechanical energy on the respective paths for optimum efficiency. A further point is that a conventional hybrid drive system does not come with fixed mechanical transmission ratios, which would serve to optimise fuel consumption. Instead, conventional hybrid drivetrains use a continuously variable transmission, with the disadvantage that the actual requirement for performance and load feedback from the car are separated from one another, thus failing to provide a dynamic driving impression. The two-mode active transmission, by contrast, overcomes and eliminates the disadvantages of a conventional hybrid drivetrain. It reduces the share of power flowing through the electrical branch of the transmission throughout a broad range of transmission ratios. Through its power split in two transmission ranges, the two-mode active transmission therefore provides the energy of both electric motors in an ideal form tailored to current driving conditions.

BMW ActiveHybrid: the result of years of research.

The principle of the two-mode active transmission in BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid forms a significant milestone in BMW’s ActiveHybrid strategy, fulfilling the demands made by a broad range of customers looking for a dynamic, economical and responsible form of motoring.

To reach this goal BMW pursues a clear-cut “Best of Hybrid” strategy enabling use of the optimum components under a modular principle within a wide range of different vehicle concepts planned for the future. Parallel to the Global Hybrid Cooperation, the BMW Group has therefore entered into yet another joint venture with DaimlerChrysler, developing components for hybrid drive in the luxury performance saloon.

BMW started to develop hybrid drive many years ago, long before the foundation of the Global Hybrid Cooperation. Indeed, BMW tested the electric drivetrain as early as in the late 1980s, for example in the BMW E1. And the BMW Group has been conducting research on hybrid technology and its various options for more than 15 years, making this technology and the results already obtained a firm part of the BMW X5 EfficientDynamics development strategy.

In the meantime the BMW Group has presented several hybrid vehicle concepts, starting with a hybrid car in 1995 based on the BMW 518i. In particular, the outstanding potential of this drive technology has been proven in the BMW X5 EfficientDynamics presented in 2003 and the BMW Concept X3 EfficientDynamics shown to the world in 2005.

Introducing BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid, BMW is proudly presenting the highest degree of maturity in hybrid technology seen so far. Indeed, this technology offers everything it takes to combine extremely efficient motoring with that Sheer Driving Pleasure so typical of BMW.

A clear sign of the special status of the BMW ActiveHybrid concept is the presentation of this technology in combination with a brand new type of vehicle: BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is the unusually attractive vision of a truly innovative vehicle virtually predestined for such cutting-edge drivetrain technology.

A thrilling team: BMW ActiveHybrid and the world’s first Sports Activity Coupe.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid establishes a new benchmark right from the start through the innovative combination of design and concept features. Four doors and the smooth, dynamic coupe roofline interact with a high window line and extra-muscular wheel arches ensuring permanent presence and a perfect balance of the front and rear axle as a clear reference to all-wheel drive.

At the front BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is dominated by design elements symbolising the vehicle’s dynamic orientation to the road, while from the side the vehicle’s proportions are particularly elegant and well-balanced. The short front body overhang emphasises the dynamic character of the car, the long overhang at the rear highlights the stretched and sleek appearance of the vehicle.

Moved far to the back and with the roofline dropping down visibly and continuously from the B-pillar, the greenhouse, together with the high window line, ensures flat and low-slung window graphics.

The roofline flows down gently to the contour lip at the rear, finally merging into a slight upward swing perfecting the coupe line and at the same time optimising the car’s streamlining.

The rear look of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is split by horizontal lines making the car look wider and emphasising its stable grip on the road. A muscular bumper and the protective cover for the underfloor are further classic design elements characteristic of a BMW X Car. And last but not least, the proportions so typical of a coupe are borne out here in particular style typical of a BMW X Car, inter alia through the muscular and elegant shoulders.

A typical BMW also in design.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is clearly recognisable as a BMW from every angle. All design features clearly bear out the language of BMW design, with the focus primarily on those sculptural lines so characteristic of all BMW X models.

The front, side and rear body sections flow smoothly and directly into one another, with additionally highlighting various design elements typical of the brand ranging from the BMW kidney grille through the dual round headlights with their cut contour and the powerful contour line at the side all the way to the horizontal lines at the rear.

Following the usual philosophy of a BMW X Car, the wheel arches show slightly square contours offering space for 21-inch light-alloy wheels in Y-spoke design created especially for BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid.

This is indeed a brand-new rendition of such three-dimensional rims with the individual spokes showing recessed surfaces not only at the top, but also further down towards the inner sections of the wheel.

The exterior mirrors on BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid are likewise brandnew in their design, a white, shimmering row of lights standing out between the lower element finished in body colour and the upper section of the mirror cap made of aluminium. Supplementing the corona rings in the headlights so typical of BMW, these additional lights also provide a daytime light function.

The unique character of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid is also borne out by the design of the rear lights where the L-shape so typical of a BMW X Car is re-interpreted in a particularly dynamic, sweeping motion. Extending far into the side panels, the rear lights also serve to emphasise the overall width of the car in its night design.

Front and rear: clear signals for efficient motoring.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid proudly presents its unmistakable design also through truly authentic, unique features clearly visible at very first sight. Hence, through its look alone this concept car arouses the greatest expectations of the driving experience in such a Sports Activity Coupe. It clearly underlines the robust character and superior traction of a BMW X Car in combination with dynamic driving qualities never seen before in this segment.

The unique character of this drivetrain concept is also expressed through the design of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid: Not only the door cutout strips with their blue, illuminated “BMW ActiveHybrid” marking and the strongly contrasting colour scheme combining the paintwork with the dark window graphics confirm the special status of this vehicle, but also other, truly unique and innovative design features at the back of the car. As soon as the electric motors take over in full and provide all the drive power required, a clear signal for optimised combustion and emission ratings is proudly displayed at the back, since the underfloor protection panel made of brushed aluminium both front and rear is a moving element on BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid: So as soon as the vehicle is running entirely on electric power, the rear protection panel may be moved up to cover the two tailpipes on the exhaust system as long as they are not required for their normal purpose.

The innovative philosophy of BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid clearly proves that large and dynamic vehicles may also be driven economically and with a clear focus on the environment, at the same time reaching new horizons in terms of driving pleasure and aesthetic design.

BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid thus offers not only a particularly high standard of efficiency, but also enhanced driving dynamics, this concept meeting the high standards of BMW EfficientDynamics in every respect. Indeed, BMW Concept X6 ActiveHybrid ensures progress on all levels – in terms of driving dynamics, in its all-round economy, and in design.

Sheer Driving Pleasure and the unique experience of particularly efficient motoring therefore come out clearly at very first sight.

OTTAWA — Could it really be so – that GM’s Hummer is more than 40 per cent greener than Toyota’s Prius? That Ford’s F-Series pickup is greener? That GM’s Silverado pickup is greener? That Dodge’s Ram pickup is greener? That Cadillac’s DTS, a full-sized luxury sedan with a V8 engine, is greener? Could it be, in fact, that seven different luxury-class automobiles are all greener – and that three of them are Cadillac models?

Well, indeed, it really could be. And, if so, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s new-car incentive program is a huge environmental mistake.

Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research Inc. has conducted the world’s most comprehensive analysis of the “life cycle” energy requirements of more than 100 makes and models of cars and trucks. Given the thousands of parts and processes in the manufacturing and operation of cars, it was a complex task and took the company two years to complete. Volvo once tried to do it – and gave up in frustration (though it does publish “life cycle” analysis for its own makes).

CNW identified 4,000 “data points” for each car, ranging from the energy consumed in research and development to energy consumed in junkyard disposal. It calculated the electrical energy needed to produce each pound of parts. It calculated greenhouse gas emissions. It calculated mileage, too – adjusting for the differences between rush-hour Tokyo and rural America.

The company describes this exercise as “dust to dust” analysis. CNW has now published its second annual report, a 400-page production.

To keep it relatively free of technical jargon, the company expresses energy requirement as the dollar cost of energy for every mile across a vehicle’s anticipated years of use – “U.S. dollars per lifetime mile.” Thus it reports the lifetime energy requirement of a Hummer as $1.90 a mile; the lifetime energy requirement of a Prius as $2.86 a mile.

It reports by model name and by category. For 22 models of economy cars, the average lifetime energy cost is $0.85. For six models of pickup trucks, it’s $2.58. For 14 models of smaller-sized sports utility vehicles, it’s $2.07; for nine models of larger-sized SUVs, it’s $3.98. For 10 models of gas-electric hybrids, it’s $3.65.

Compare the SUVs against the hybrids and you get a sweep in favour of conventional technology. The best-rated smaller SUVs are more than twice as eco-friendly as the hybrids: Dodge’s Durango, $1.57; Ford’s Explorer, $1.61; Chevrolet’s TrailBlazer, $1.61; Jeep’s Grand Cherokee, $1.80.

More remarkably, one of the larger SUVs, Ford’s Expedition, beats the hybrids with an eco-cost of $3.54.

CNW found wide differences, however, within classes of vehicles. For 18 models of luxury cars, the average energy cost is $4.45. Yet the best of these luxury cars are superior, in lifetime energy use, to hybrids.

The luxury cars that rival hybrids: Lincoln’s Town Car, $2.66; Acura’s RL, $2.80; Cadillac’s CTS, $3.19; BMW’s 5 Series, $3.19; Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class, $3.48; Toyota Land Cruiser 80 series, $3.49; Cadillac’s STS (Seville), $3.56; Cadillac’s DTS (DeVille), $3.65.

CNW’s assessment of the hybrids has irritated some of the car companies.

Toyota says that CNW credited Prius with only half its 200,000 lifetime miles. CNW says that Prius owners drive less than 7,500 miles a year – meaning that these cars will be scrapped long before they use their expected lifetime mileage (in 26 years). CNW says that hybrids fare poorly because of increased complexity. Honda’s conventional Accord gets rated at $2.18; its Accord Hybrid gets rated at $3.29 – an environmental cost 50 per cent higher.

Take the batteries, for example. Toyota buys 1,000 tonnes of nickel a year from Ontario (mined and smelted in Sudbury). This nickel gets shipped to Wales for refining, then to China, for further processing, and then to Toyota’s battery plant in Tokyo – a 10,000-mile trip, mostly by petrol-gulping container ships and diesel-powered locomotives.

Toyota, however, still has some of the greenest vehicles on earth. The Scion has the lowest energy cost of all at 48 cents a mile. The Corolla, at 72 cents, and the Echo (Yaris), at 77 cents, are also in the best-on-earth class. Low-energy competitors include Dodge’s Neon (64 cents) and Saturn’s Ion (67 cents). Cars with the highest energy requirement include the Rolls Royce ($10.97) and the equally elegant German-made Maybach ($15.83).

In his March budget, Mr. Flaherty made fuel efficiency – gas mileage alone – the sole basis for the environmental rating of new cars. He will reward high-mileage cars (with rebates from $1,000 to $2,000) and punish low-mileage cars (with surcharges from $1,000 to $4,000). The program could well be a phenomenal waste of energy. Junk it, Mr. Flaherty. It’s not fit for the road.

Not only is it a handy marketing device–”our cars are tailor-made,” BMW’s chief executive, Norbert Reithofer, can boast–but it’s also profitable. BMW customers, it turns out, often have second thoughts. And when they do, they invariably add ever pricier accouterments. The company says customers change their orders more than 1 million times a year. BMW doesn’t break out details of the additional revenue, but given the profit margins on many add-ons, “it’s like a big dollop of cream on the cake,” says Peter Schmidt, a British-based auto-industry consultant.

This ability to cater to fickle tastes is just one manifestation of an extraordinary flexibility that BMW has injected into a company that sold nearly 1.4 million cars last year, bringing in $65 billion in revenues. It’s a flexibility that affects almost everything the firm touches, from the layout of its assembly lines to the working hours of its administrative staff to relationships with its unions and key suppliers. BMW has mastered the manufacturing fine art called mass customization: no two cars rolling through its assembly lines on any given day are identical. Its factories can cope with a model changeover during the course of a weekend without work stoppages. Detroit would take weeks.

The flexibility also extends to the rhythm of work: BMW has struck deals with its heavily unionized workforce that enable it to run its factories more or less as demand dictates. Its newest plant in Leipzig, where the 3-series and new 1-series hatchback cars are built, runs anywhere from 60 to 140 hours per week. Instead of classic two- or three-shift rosters, the company juggles some 300 working-time permutations to determine optimal use of its teams of workers, some of whom are contract “permatemps” more common in the U.S.

The new BMW is in some ways symbolic of the resurgent German economy. For more than a decade, exorbitant labor costs, unbending union rules and an addiction to red tape–not to mention the high price of unification with East Germany–put Germany into an economic straitjacket. BMW went through its own rough patch in the 1990s after the disastrous acquisition of Britain’s Rover Group, but its fortunes have changed markedly since it ditched Rover in 2000. Production has increased steadily, and profits are buoyant. Pretax earnings last year rose 25%, to $5.5 billion, despite the soaring cost of raw materials and the strong euro. It has easily outpaced its historic rival, Mercedes (part of DaimlerChrysler), to become the leading premium-car brand. BMW is pushing a worldwide expansion. This spring it opened an assembly plant in India, and the company is building out a plant in Spartanburg, S.C., as part of its strategy to be less vulnerable to foreign-exchange fluctuations.

The German economy is similarly healthy, growing 2.8% last year, and it is once again acting as a powerful motor for the rest of Europe. Surging exports pushed the nation’s trade surplus to more than $200 billion. Germany’s economy has also undergone significant re-engineering to loosen some of its infamous rigidities. The government has cut corporate taxes and reduced the burden of some nonwage costs on business, such as pensions and health care. It has shaken up its labor market, which has led to a drop in unemployment (although the proportion of jobless, at 8.8%, is still well above the European average). The move to ever shorter working hours that culminated in the 35-hour week in the late 1980s has been reversed; millions of Germans have been working longer in the past two to three years without increased pay. The latest: 50,000 employees at Deutsche Telekom, the former state telephone monopoly, who accepted an extended workweek and a pay cut to protect their jobs.

Neither Germany nor BMW is yet in the clear. The changes brought about by corporate bosses and government policymakers have had an evident impact–BMW alone has whacked $1.2 billion from its cost structure over the past three years–but it’ll be hard to sustain that pace. Global competition shows no sign of letting up. Toyota’s Lexus is starting to make inroads into BMW’s European turf, while at home, rival Audi is turning up the heat, and Mercedes looks like a formidable competitor once again, now that DaimlerChrysler has agreed to sell off Chrysler to a U.S. private-equity firm.

Germany is still far from being a freewheeling economy. It remains suspicious of Anglo-Saxon finance, for example, and has been seeking to curb the power of hedge funds. There’s also little sign of substantive change in the historic–some say hide-bound–system of labor relations, under which unions are represented on the supervisory boards of companies. Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former International Monetary Fund economist, sees Germany’s improved fortunes as being largely the result of the private sector finding ways to bypass continuing structural roadblocks in the economy. The recovery “has legs,” he says, because there’s still room to catch up with U.S. productivity levels. But he warns that the current economic upswing “won’t last forever without more transparent institutional reforms.”

CEO Reithofer is more upbeat. Faced with low-cost competition from Asia and Eastern Europe, he says, “many German firms did their homework, and now they are benefiting from it.” He thinks Germany could go further, for example, in reducing high nonwage labor costs. But Germany still has competitive advantages, he says, pointing to its traditional engineering prowess combined with a newer ability to cater to the needs of individual clients. The challenge, he tells TIME: “It’s all about mastering complexity.”

Drop in on BMW’s Leipzig plant, and you can see what he means. It’s the firm’s newest, having opened just two years ago, with a luminous open-plan central building that houses white-collar workers and managers. It was designed by London-based architect Zaha Hadid, and its most striking feature is a conveyor belt that meanders inside the building just below roof level, carrying a steady stream of cars from the body shop to the paint shop. You can see it from almost everywhere in the building, including the cafeteria.

Robots do most of the work in the body shop, welding, riveting and bonding hundreds of components together. Robots also apply the four layers of water-based paint to each car. But it’s on the assembly line that BMW differentiates itself from even its Japanese rivals. To be able to customize each car requires highly sophisticated logistics. Workers stationed at regular intervals on the line reach back for components in wire baskets that have been rigorously sorted into the right sequence. The complexity is visible to the naked eye: halfway along the line, just past the section where car bodies are bolted onto the drivetrain and chassis, a gray three-door 1-series sticks out amid a convoy of silver 3-series cars. In theory, the plant is set up to handle five or six different BMW models simultaneously, although for the moment it handles two.

The factory has been designed so that new production processes can be added to the assembly line at any time without disrupting the work flow. That’s a huge advantage over more traditional lines, which need to be shut down for any changeover or addition. Several key suppliers are based in the plant, rather than in a nearby supplier park. Jörg Baumheuer says that makes for easy communication when problems arise. He’s a manager at the French auto-parts firm Faurecia, which assembles cockpits and seats for BMW in Leipzig and some other plants. The advantage for Faurecia is that it doesn’t need to truck in finished parts; it simply assembles them on the spot. That cuts inventories and improves speed and reliability; the firm needs just 20 minutes’ notice to put together a customized cockpit. “It cuts out the last step of the supply chain,” Baumheuer says. Moreover, since Faurecia’s workers eat lunch at the same cafeteria as BMW’s, interchange is easy and natural.

The degree of customization that is required means BMW isn’t as ruthlessly efficient as Toyota in some respects, including the number of cars produced per worker per day. But there’s a trade-off. “BMW is not prepared to sacrifice its ability to give consumers the car they want. The alternative would be reduced costs but not the ability to charge a premium for customized cars,” says Garel Rhys, an auto-industry expert at Cardiff University. In the end, he says, BMW’s marginal revenue from customization is higher than the marginal cost advantage it gives up.

That’s not to say there’s no pressure on costs. Reithofer is a process engineer by training and set up the customized-production system. He’s insisting on efficiency gains of at least 5% annually, “an iron goal,” as he puts it. Every year BMW sits down with its suppliers to discuss specific savings targets, but it also canvasses them for creative ideas about possible cost cuts they can undertake together. Klaus Richter, a former McKinsey consultant who’s now BMW’s procurement man, says some 10,000 such suggestions have been made in the past three years, of which about a third have been put into practice. The savings, he says, amount to hundreds of millions of euros.

BMW has also driven some hard bargains with its workforce. It began to back away from rigid German working hours in the late 1980s, when it opened a new plant in Regensburg to produce the 3-series. Its goal even then was to decouple the union-regulated workweek from the amount of time its factory was in operation. Management made flexible working hours a condition of its investment in the plant. The demand infuriated the powerful German autoworkers union, IG Metall, but the syndicate had little choice. “Without these restrictions we wouldn’t have come up with these solutions. We had to be creative,” says Ernst Baumann, the board member responsible for personnel.

Winning union approval for even greater flexibility was easier in Leipzig. In part, that’s because other German automakers, particularly Volkswagen, were threatening to move some of their production outside Germany altogether because of high costs. In the end, the union agreed to extend working hours without extra pay. That has been a boon to the whole industry–and the German economy. Reithofer acknowledges that the wage restraint “has been a fundamental contribution to making Germany competitive again.”

BMW gained particular concessions from its workers because Leipzig is in formerly communist eastern Germany, where unemployment has been about double the western German level and wages have lagged. Under the negotiated agreement, BMW doesn’t pay higher rates for Saturday work in Leipzig, and employees put in on average two more hours a week than in western German BMW plants. Moreover, about half the 5,000 workers in Leipzig are not on BMW’s staff; they either work for suppliers such as Faurecia or are so-called lease workers employed by specialized agencies and used by BMW when needed. That’s a relatively new but fast-growing phenomenon: the number of lease workers nationally has more than tripled in the past decade, from 160,000 in 1996 to about 600,000 today, according to the Federal Labor Office.

Union representatives generally rate BMW a good employer, and they characterize overall relations with management as good. The feeling is mutual. “German law is better than its reputation, and so are the unions,” says Leipzig plant director Peter Claussen. Still, the use of so many lease workers in Leipzig is a sore point. Jens Köhler, the workers’ main representative in Leipzig, reckons that lease workers receive about two-thirds the monthly pay and fewer benefits than colleagues who are BMW staffers. Calculated on an annual basis, once Christmas bonuses and profit sharing are included, lease workers are paid only about half as much. “It’s not right. They’re like second-class citizens,” Köhler says. IG Metall, for one, is pushing for lease workers to be given a better deal nationally, but so far with little effect.

Putting BMW on a more efficient footing at home has enabled it to expand its product line in all directions. Over the past decade, it has evolved from a group with six model families–with the 3-, 5- and 7-series cars accounting for the vast majority of sales–to one with 11 model families grouped in three distinct brands, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce. Three new model families are in the works, including a luxury sports car. The Mini, a remnant of the otherwise disastrous 1994 Rover acquisition, has far exceeded all expectations, and BMW is expanding its production capacity in Britain. The company had anticipated selling about 100,000 Minis by 2005. In fact, it sold double that number, and production will hit 240,000 this year. Rolls-Royce won’t sell nearly that amount, but it makes up in price and prestige what it lacks in volume.

BMW’s critics say its product-line expansion hasn’t solved all its growth challenges or given it much protection from the increasingly competitive luxury segment. Helmut Becker, an auto consultant and formerly BMW’s chief economist, says the idea behind the failed Rover deal–to turn the firm into a two-brand company, one for the mass market and one a premium brand–was a smart one, since it would have enabled BMW to spread the huge cost of new-car development over a far bigger group. “BMW’s main weakness is that life is getting ever narrower in the premium segment, and it needs volume growth. I’m not sure where it can get it from,” Becker says. But other analysts such as Cardiff’s Rhys reckon that BMW can continue to forge ahead because of the skillful management of its brand name and underlying business. “They need to have the best cost base possible and make a product consumers want,” Rhys says, “but BMW will be fine for another decade.”

Reithofer pooh-poohs the pessimists. “Size and success have got nothing to do with one another,” he says. BMW’s rapid sales expansion in the past few years provides some economies of scale, he says. He points out that the firm is also pooling its resources with other manufacturers, developing engines for the Mini together with Peugeot and hybrid-engine components together with Mercedes. Looking around the world, he makes a sharp distinction. Toyota, the world’s biggest and most profitable car company, “is strongly process driven,” he says. BMW, by contrast, “is more product driven–and I wouldn’t want to bet on who will be more successful in 10 years.” That’s bravado, of course, but in itself such self-confidence is a sign that a new, more flexible Germany is bouncing back. HIGH PERFORMANCE With steady increases in production and profits fueling its stock surge, BMW has become the leading premium car brand.

Written By: Peter Gumbel for TIME Magazine

BMW F1 Sauber Wind Tunnel

The three main technologies used include brake energy regeneration, automatic start-stop, and switch point display. The latter feature works by helping drivers of manual transmission MINIs to select the most economical gear in which to drive. The engine management system analyses speed, road situation and accelerator pedal position and based on this data calculates optimum gearing. The ideal gear is then displayed by number in the cockpit display.

Fuel economy improvements range from 6.5% for the Mini One to 12.8% for the Cooper D. Despite the reductions, the Cooper D is the only car in the range that remains under 120g/km.
 

Published: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/hatchbacks/greener-mini-mk2-arriving-in-august/ 

Fortunately, BMW is taking a first step into the hydrogen future with its Hydrogen 7 cars. Based on production 7 Series sedans, these prototypes employ conventional internal-combustion engines converted for operation on either liquid hydrogen or conventional gasoline. This approach not only uses available technology (speeding the advance of hydrogen generation, storage, and infrastructure), it also delivers a dynamic experience familiar to today’s drivers, especially those who already drive BMWs.

Although there is just a handful of Hydrogen 7’s in the country at the moment, they are actually considered production models. Some are in private hands, while others are being utilized institutionally. Among the lucky few who can be seen tooling around in a Hydrogen 7 is Governor Schwarzenegger of California. Despite our considerably lower profile, we were able to get some seat time in one of these Sevens recently and took it cruising through the bustling streets of Manhattan.

Aside from the reflective foil graphics on the exterior, there is almost nothing to give away the Hydrogen 7 as anything other than a your average, run-of-the-mill 760Li. Strip away the stickers and only the large hydrogen fuel filler port and modest bulge in the hood (to provide clearance for the hydrogen injection valves) distinguish it as something truly uncommon.

Even inside, there are no obtrusive screens, buttons or levers. The few unique controls are integrated into the steering wheel and dashboard as though BMW had already built 100,000 of them. The rear seating area gives up 4.5 inches of legroom compared to a conventional 760Li, making room for the 30-gallon hydrogen fuel tank between the back seats and the trunk. Otherwise, the cabin is sumptuously appointed with walnut and leather and Alcantara.

Starting this car is no different than starting any other BMW. By default, the Hydrogen 7 starts up under gasoline power. Once it reaches operating temperature, it can be switched over to hydrogen propulsion. The switchover is virtually seamless, handled at the mere pressing of the H2 button on the right side of the steering wheel. Other than a slight hiccup during the transition, which could be easily mistaken for a typical misfire, driving on hydrogen feels mostly like driving any other large BMW.

The Hydrogen 7 uses BMW’s 6.0-liter V12 engine as the basis. Pure hydrogen, however, is a different animal than gasoline, burning up to ten times faster than conventional fuels. Accordingly, the engine management system has been programmed to deal with the unique properties of liquid hydrogen, and the resulting output is lower than a normal gasoline V12. And in order to make the car’s performance more predictable, the engine delivers the same output in gasoline mode as it makes in H2 mode. The result is 260 hp at 5100 rpm and 287 lb-ft of torque at 4300 rpm.

Around town, it gets off the line like any other 7, but once under way it seems to lack the mid-range potency required to squirt safely through the last few amber rays of a rapidly-changing traffic light. Some of this is due to the weight- pulling over 5000 pounds of technology is a lot for just 260 horses these days. Nevertheless, BMW claims the Hydrogen 7 will get to 62 mph in nine and a half seconds and will pull to an electronically limited top speed of 143 mph.

Ride and handling are like pretty much any other full-tilt Seven. Aluminum is used extensively in the front suspension to keep weight down, but springs from BMW’s in-house Security 7 model help deal with the added mass that comes with having dual fueling systems.

Our time in BMW’s zeppelin was brief, but it made a significant impression. Suddenly the thought of dwindling fossil fuel supplies and reducing greenhouse gases isn’t sounding so bleak. Just as it did a quarter century ago, technology is overcoming the next major obstacle on the road to more responsible motoring.

May 11, 2007

Bryan Joslin at The Car Lounge

ARJEPLOG, Sweden–For much of modern motoring history, four-wheel drive in passenger cars has been a brand identifier primarily for Subaru and Audi.

More recently, everybody’s trying to get into the act – or get out of the snowbank. I was personally surprised to learn that 25 per cent of BMWs sold last year were four-wheel drive.

(Point of clarification: like a few other recalcitrants, I continue to use “four-wheel drive” to indicate a car whose all four wheels have power sent to them. Hence, there’s no difference between four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive; the former term is just more accurate.

I mean, if you have a three-wheeler and they’re all driven, that’s all-wheel drive too, right? The marketing dudes use all-wheel drive to indicate systems that divide power front-to-rear automatically, without driver intervention.

But if that’s what they mean, why don’t they just say so? Oh yeah, I forgot – they’re marketing dudes.)

It was primarily Audi that showed four-wheel drive wasn’t just for getting out of snowbanks, when a couple of quattro sedans blew Trans Am sedan racing apart in 1988. (Needless to say, they were banned by the rule-makers.)

Dividing the available traction between four tire contact patches instead of just two allows the car to put more of the power to the ground, more of the time.

The challenge for the engineers is to make sure just the right amount of power gets to each contact patch. The devil is in the details.

Pardon the up-coming drivetrain primer, but this may be necessary to understand what’s going on here. For me, I mean.

In a corner, the front wheels of a car must go farther than the rears, and the outside wheels must go farther than the inside. Thus, each wheel must turn at a different speed.

If the wheels on a given axle are not driven, like the fronts on a rear-drive car or the rears on a front-driver, no worries: they just turn as fast as they are pushed or pulled.

But if you try to put torque through them, then you have a problem. A differential, something you may have only ever seen as that big ugly lump in the middle of the rear axle of a pick-up truck, attempts to solve said problem with a combination of spinning gears that is truly bewildering. Heck, I’m an engineer and I can barely figure out how a diff works.

But if it didn’t work, the axle would bind up and the car would skitter all over the place.

This introduces another problem: that is, the mechanism that allows the outside wheel to spin faster also means that if you try to put too much power to that axle, the wheel with the least amount of grip can spin freely, thereby defeating the purpose. There’s that snowbank again.

In cases where traction is of the utmost importance, such as sports cars, racing cars, and any car on a wet or snowy road, various forms of slip-limiting differentials have been devised.

These diffs are good to a point. But all are in effect negative devices, because they reduce the amount of power available for the task.

What if you could figure a way to force the outside wheel to spin faster, thereby helping pull the car through the corner, rather than simply slowing the other side down?

You wouldn’t necessarily use all this power to go faster; you could at the same time increase the car’s steering sensitivity, making the car handle better and more safely.

Improve dynamics, driving enjoyment and safety?

Win win win.

The theory is old; J. Walter Christie was working on it in the early 1900s. But the combination of age-old mechanical systems and fast-acting and reliable electronics have finally made this goal a reality.

Honda introduced its Super Handling front diff on the Prelude in 1997, but not much came of that.

The same company’s Super Handling AWD system is currently offered on the Acura RL, and it works a treat, making that car surprisingly dynamic and quick, yet safe as church.

And now BMW has shown its latest development, something called Dynamic Performance Control, or DPC. (Sometimes I think BMW spends as much time developing the three-letter acronyms as it does the technology.)

Adding an additional planetary gear set and a pair of electronically controlled multi-plate clutches to the differential in effect can direct more power to the outside wheel of the axle.

In action, it is the perfect illustration of the corollary of Murphy’s Law, which states that any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic.

What makes DPC unique is that it functions whether there is power supplied to the wheels or not, while Honda’s system only works under load.

Theoretically, DPC could be applied to either the front or rear axles of a car, or both; and to front-, rear-, or four-wheel drive vehicles.

At the moment, BMW sees it as a further development of the xDrive four-wheel drive system, which in itself automatically divides torque between front and rear axles as required by driving conditions.

DPC in the rear axle then takes whatever amount of torque is available to the rear wheels and divides it left-to-right as appropriate.

Arjeplog, just 56 km south of the Arctic Circle and home to BMW’s new cold weather test facility, offers a wide range of driving conditions to test something like DPC: Snow-covered hills; plowed frozen lakes; closed-to-the-public, snow-laden winding forest trails; special low-friction surfaces so slippery you can barely walk on them, let alone drive.

Pairs of otherwise similar BMW models, one equipped with conventional xDrive, the other with xDrive plus DPC, were pitted against each other under a variety of conditions, and it really was no contest.

The DPC was not all that much faster through a slalom course; the biggest difference was that far less steering input was needed to negotiate the serpentine. The real-world advantage here is that a less-than-brilliantly-skilled driver would be more likely to get through an emergency back-and-forth steering manoeuvre with the DPC car.

One of the downsides of most four-wheel drive cars is a tendency to understeer, that is, plow straight ahead in a bend.

By its very nature, DPC reduces this tendency markedly, meaning the car is much more entertaining to drive, a major issue for a company whose motto is The Ultimate Driving Machine.

The most definitive test was an impromptu ice drag race on a “split-mu” surface – one side of the car on regular ice, the other on the polished low-friction surface.

Just like in the 1950s teen movies, the technician / starter held out both arms, then dropped his hands (Natalie Wood dropped her hanky, if memory serves …). The DPC car pulled away with ridiculous ease.

Likewise on the hills, skid pads, winding roads. It simply works, invisibly and effectively.

Now in one sense, any test set out for a four-wheel drive vehicle is doomed to failure. If the vehicle passes the test, the test wasn’t tough enough.

But if the vehicle fails the test, the vehicle isn’t good enough; understand that there are situations too difficult – hills too steep or too icy; mud too deep – that no car could possibly surmount.

The trick is to set the tests tough enough that your vehicle passes them, while the competitors can’t.

In this case BMW was competing with itself, and the new technology clearly wins.

The question now is, does it matter? Do you really need more traction than you can already get with today’s excellent chassis control electronics and modern winter tires?

The pick-up drivers often say that all four-wheel drive does for you is get you stuck deeper, farther from home – usually out of cellphone range.

The passenger car equivalent is that four-wheel drive can just let you have your crash at a higher speed. Even with DPC, four-wheel drive can increase acceleration and cornering ability, but doesn’t do a whole lot for braking.

Also, four-wheel drive tends to overstate the amount of grip the driver perceives, unlike rear-wheel drive – the most extreme example – which instantly tells you by virtue of the rear end fishtailing all over the place that you’re out of grip and should back off.

Still, “backing off” could mean backing off into the ditch, something devoutly to be avoided.

The above caveat could be applied to any advanced technology, as it has to ABS brakes, for example.

But engineers, by their nature, believe that a sharper knife is better than a sharp one. Their job is to develop sharper knives; our obligation as consumers is to learn how to use them properly and safely.

There is no doubt that BMW has developed a sharper knife with DPC.

At this stage the company is not saying when DPC will be made available to the motoring public.

Judging from the thinly disguised upcoming new-generation 7 Series luxury sedans that were scattered about the Arjeplog test facility; the fact that new technology is usually introduced in the top-end vehicles before trickling down to the lower classes; and the fact that unlike the 7’s uber-competitors, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Audi A8, the biggest Bimmer has never had four-wheel drive, that’s where I’m placing my bets.

See you in Frankfurt this September?

Jim Kenzie

Toronto Star May 05, 2007

BMW has just taken the wraps off an advanced torque vectoring system that promises to improve both the agility and stability of its four-wheel drive models.

Called Dynamic Performance Control, the new system is an evolution of BMW’s xDrive system, but adds a series of additional electro-magnetic clutches, in a modified rear differential housing that allow power to be juggled between the individual rear wheels as well as between the front and rear axles.