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Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, abbreviated as BMW (German pronunciation: [ˌbeːʔɛmˈveː] i), is a German multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The company was founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917 to 1918 and aga... |
Automobiles are marketed under the brands BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, and motorcycles are marketed under the brand BMW Motorrad. In 2017, BMW was the world's fourteenth-largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,279,503 vehicles produced3 and in 2022 the 7th largest by revenue.4 The company has significant motor-sport h... |
BMW is headquartered in Munich and produces motor vehicles in Germany, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Quandt family is a long-term shareholder of the company, following investments by the brothers Herbert and Harald Quandt in 1959 that saved B... |
History |
Main article: History of BMW |
Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik was founded in 1910 by Gustav Otto in Bavaria. The firm was reorganized on 7 March 1916 into Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG. This company was then renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in 1922. However, the name BMW dates back to 1913, when the original company to use the name was founded by K... |
BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time, built Austin Sevens under licence under the Dixi marque.6 The first car sold as a BMW was a rebadged Dixi called the BMW 3/15, following BMW's acquisition of the car manufacturer Automobilwerk Eisenach. Througho... |
Aircraft engines, motorcycles, and automobiles would be BMW's main products until World War II. During the war, BMW concentrated on aircraft engine production using as many as 40,000 slave laborers.7 These consisted primarily of prisoners from concentration camps, most prominently Dachau. Motorcycles remained as a side... |
BMW's factories were heavily bombed during the war and its remaining West German facilities were banned from producing motor vehicles or aircraft after the war. Again, the company survived by making pots, pans, and bicycles. In 1948, BMW restarted motorcycle production. BMW resumed car production in Bavaria in 1952 wit... |
A large investment in BMW by Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt resulted in the company surviving as a separate entity. The Quandts' father, Günther Quandt, was a well-known German industrialist. Quandt joined the Nazi party in 1933 and made a fortune arming the German Wehrmacht, manufacturing weapons and batteries.8 Man... |
The relative success of the small BMW 700 assisted in the company's recovery, allowing them to develop the New Class sedans. |
The 1962 introduction of the BMW New Class compact sedans was the beginning of BMW's reputation as a leading manufacturer of sport-oriented cars. Throughout the 1960s, BMW expanded its range by adding coupé and luxury sedan models. The BMW 5 Series mid-size sedan range was introduced in 1972, followed by the BMW 3 Seri... |
The BMW M division released its first road car, a mid-engine supercar, in 1978. This was followed by the BMW M5 in 1984 and the BMW M3 in 1986. Also in 1986, BMW introduced its first V12 engine in the 750i luxury sedan. |
The company purchased the Rover Group in 1994, however the takeover was not successful and was causing BMW large financial losses. In 2000, BMW sold off most of the Rover brands, retaining only the Mini brand. |
In 1998, BMW also acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce brand from Vickers Plc. |
The 1995 BMW Z3 expanded the line-up to include a mass-production two-seat roadster and the 1999 BMW X5 was the company's entry into the SUV market. |
The first modern mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine was introduced in 2006, (from 1973 to 1975, BMW built 1672 units of a turbocharged M10 engine for the BMW 2002 turbo),11 with most engines switching over to turbocharging over the 2010s. The first hybrid BMW was the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, and BMW's first mass-... |
In January 2021, BMW announced that its sales in 2020 fell by 8.4% due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, BMW witnessed a rise of 3.2% in its customers' demands.13 |
On 18 January 2022, BMW announced a new limited edition M760Li xDrive simply called "The Final V12,"14 the last BMW series production vehicle to be fitted with a V-12 engine.14 |
BMW and Toyota aim to sell jointly-developed hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as soon as 2025.15 16 |
Branding |
BMW badge on a 1931 Dixi |
Flag of Bavaria |
Company name |
BMW is an abbreviation for Bayerische Motoren Werke (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪ̯ʁɪʃə mɔˈtʰɔʁn̩ ˈvɛɐ̯kə]). This name is grammatically incorrect (in German, compound words must not contain spaces), which is why the grammatically correct form of the name, Bayerische Motorenwerke (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪ̯ʁɪʃə mɔˈtʰɔʁn... |
The terms Beemer, Bimmer and Bee-em are sometimes used as slang for BMW in the English language20 21 and are sometimes used interchangeably for cars and motorcycles.22 23 24 |
Logo |
The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel evolved from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo, which featured a black ring bearing the company name surrounding the company logo,25 on a plinth a horse's head couped.26 |
BMW retained Rapp's black ring inscribed with the company name, but adopted as the central element a circular escutcheon bearing a quasi-heraldic reference to the coat of arms (and flag) of the Free State of Bavaria (as the state of their origin was named after 1918), being the arms of the House of Wittelsbach, Dukes a... |
The current iteration of the logo was introduced in 2020,29 removing 3D effects that had been used in previous renderings of the logo while removing the black outline encircling the rondel. The logo is used for BMW's branding but it is not used on vehicles.30 31 |
The origin of the logo as a portrayal of the movement of an aircraft propeller, the BMW logo with the white blades seeming to cut through a blue sky, is a myth which sprang from a 1929 BMW advertisement depicting the BMW emblem overlaid on a rotating propeller, with the quarters defined by strobe-light effect, a promot... |
For a long time, BMW made little effort to correct the myth that the BMW badge is a propeller |
— Fred Jakobs, Archive Director, BMW Group Classic, 25 |
It is well established that this propeller portrayal was first used in a BMW advertisement in 1929 – twelve years after the logo was created – so this is not the true origin of the logo.32 |
Slogan |
The slogan 'The Ultimate Driving Machine' was first used in North America in 1974.33 34 In 2010, this long-lived campaign was mostly supplanted by a campaign intended to make the brand more approachable and to better appeal to women, 'Joy'. By 2012 BMW had returned to 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'.35 |
Finances |
For the fiscal year 2017, BMW reported earnings of EUR 8.620 billion, with an annual revenue of EUR 98.678 billion, an increase of 4.8% over the previous fiscal cycle.36 BMW's shares traded at over €77 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at US 55.3 billion in November 2018.37 |
Year Revenue |
in bn. EUR€ Net income |
in bn. EUR€ Total Assets |
in bn. EUR€ Employees |
2011 68.821 4.881 123.429 100,306 |
2012 76.848 5.096 131.850 105,876 |
2013 76.058 5.314 138.368 110,351 |
2014 80.401 5.798 154.803 116,324 |
2015 92.175 6.369 172.174 122,244 |
2016 94.163 6.863 188.535 124,729 |
2017 98.678 8.620 193.483 129,932 |
2018 97.480 7.117 208.980 134,682 |
2019 104.210 4.915 241.663 133,778 |
2020 98.990 3.775 216.658 120,726 |
2021 111.239 12.382 229.527 118,909 |
The R32 motorcycle, the first BMW motor vehicle, at the BMW Museum in Munich |
BMW began production of motorcycle engines and then motorcycles after World War I.38 Its motorcycle brand is now known as BMW Motorrad. Their first successful motorcycle after the failed Helios and Flink, was the "R32" in 1923, though production originally began in 1921.39 This had a "boxer" twin engine, in which a cyl... |
The entire BMW Motorcycle production has, since 1969, been located at the company's Berlin-Spandau factory. |
During the Second World War, BMW produced the BMW R75 motorcycle with a motor-driven sidecar attached, combined with a lockable differential, this made the vehicle very capable off-road.40 41 |
In 1982, came the K Series, shaft drive but water-cooled and with either three or four cylinders mounted in a straight line from front to back. Shortly after, BMW also started making the chain-driven F and G series with single and parallel twin Rotax engines. |
In the early 1990s, BMW updated the airhead Boxer engine which became known as the oilhead. In 2002, the oilhead engine had two spark plugs per cylinder. In 2004 it added a built-in balance shaft, an increased capacity to 1,170 cc (71 cu in) and enhanced performance to 75 kW (101 hp) for the R1200GS, compared to 63 kW ... |
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