BMW Group named most sustainable automobile company worldwide.

[Giannis]

BMW Group named most sustainable automobile company worldwide for fifth consecutive year. The latest Dow Jones Sustainability Index World once again ranks the BMW Group as super sector leader.

* 03.09.2009
* Press Release

Munich. The SAM Group today published its latest evaluation for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). For the fifth consecutive year, it rated the BMW Group as the leader in its industry, making it the world’s most sustainable automobile manufacturer. The BMW Group is the only company in the automobile industry to have been listed in this important sustainability index family every year since it was established in 1999.

“We are delighted that the BMW Group is super sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World for the fifth consecutive year.This proves once again that we are well on our way to establishing sustainability as the guiding principle for all our processes. We refined our sustainability strategy in the first half of 2009 – this was the next logical step and another important milestone,” said Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

The Board of Management of the BMW Group declared sustainability one of the company’s core strategic principles back in 2000. At the BMW Group corporate sustainability is firmly entrenched throughout the entire value chain: from the development of fuel-saving and alternative vehicle concepts through clean production processes to green recycling practices. The BMW Group also accepts responsibility for its roughly 100,000 employees and is involved in social projects outside of its plants.

In recent months the BMW Group has taken further important steps towards further improving sustainability. Each and every proposal today is measured against the corporate goal of sustainability. At the highest management level a Sustainability Board was established in summer 2009. This board, which comprises the entire Board of Management, determines the strategic alignment for sustainability issues. Twice a year it meets to discuss and adopt the strategies and activities proposed at operational level.

Further information on BMW Group’s sustainability activities are available at: BMW Group

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The SAM Group analyses the economic, environmental and social performance of approximately 2,500 companies and selects the best in each industry for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. General sustainability criteria are considered as well as industry-specific challenges such as climate change. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index was the first global sustainability index to be created, in 1999, and has since been published each year by the SAM Group, based in Zurich, in cooperation with Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Limited. More information is available at Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

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[SCOTT27]

The Leader has Spoken...

FT.com / Companies / Automobiles - Swaggering brand is back ? at a price

 

[Centurion]

Premium: Yes.

Luxury: No.

BMW does currently not offer any car model beyond the common norm of sedans, entry level cars and SUV. Their portfolio has no aspirational cars such as the G-Class, R8, 911, CL or SLR. Mercedes and Porsche have a stronger luxury brand value, Audi is now closing in.

 

[SCOTT27]

Wait and see. There is news coming...

 

[EnI]

Premium: Yes.

Luxury: No.

BMW does currently not offer any car model beyond the common norm of sedans, entry level cars and SUV. Their portfolio has no aspirational cars such as the G-Class, R8, 911, CL or SLR. Mercedes and Porsche have a stronger luxury brand value, Audi is now closing in.

Vision EfficientDynamics Concept has an agenda. And ask yourself why 7er GT (CS Concept based car) is still listed as "active" on the BMW project lists. Perhpas the "Cancellation" maneuver was just a PR stunt - to send a message to investors & general public BMW is cost-cutting heavily. And in few months 7er GT can resurrect as "sustainability model" - which wasn't planned before the crisis. Since now "sustainability" is the key word @ BMW Group.

And you use your angle of view too much. Average buyer of MB, BMW, Audi etc. DO NOT buy a their car due to some halo model. Eg. A3 or A6 avant buyers do not care much about R8, same case eg. X5 buyers about M5, and A-class buyers about SLR or SLS etc.

What does count is promotion. A lot. Eg. Audi winning top-end fleet sales over BMW & MB (eg. state & local protocol services, corporate cars, luxury hotel transport cars etc) - and giving Audi cars to the eg. top soccer players - that counts.

People seeing prominent people driving in Audi cars ----> Audi = prestigious luxury brand.

I'm sure that could work with Lexus as well if went that way.


BMW & MB officials underestimated the power of perception in that case of Audi - since they were convinced Audi was perceived in general public as an "upscale VW", and that the public wouldn't buy such a PR stunt. But Audi's heavy promotion combined with nice design & excellent interior fit&finish+materials (compared to the MB & BMW cars in that particular time) resulted in a very positive press publicity for Audi (compared to the negative one for BMW - design & iDrive - and MB - reliability problems & poor perceived. interior quality. And these facts pushed Audi as high. Not R8 etc. R8 is just a cherry on the top. Image was earned elsewhere.

As said: eg. Nissan has an excellent car in portfolio GT-R, but that does not help Nissan image at all. Same case with Supra by Toyota, Honda's NSX, or Ford's GT.

Core line - it's success or flop - determines the image. Not the halo models. They are just extra candies. Which definitely do not hurt the image of the brand. Yet the hardly contribute to the sales of other non-related models of the same brand.

 

[HighestOfHigh]

Premium: Yes.

Luxury: No.

BMW does currently not offer any car model beyond the common norm of sedans, entry level cars and SUV. Their portfolio has no aspirational cars such as the G-Class, R8, 911, CL or SLR. Mercedes and Porsche have a stronger luxury brand value, Audi is now closing in.

Exactly! BMW who?

Hearing this kind of news just irritates me! BMW will always be second to Mercedes-Benz we it comes to a strong brand value in the luxury segment. When someone thinks luxury Benz instantly comes in to mind not BMW.

Of course the article is about "Sustainability"....Either way it's hard to believe!

 

[EnI]

Sustainability goes way beyond products.

So, yes - currently BMW AG is the most sustainable COMPANY (no brand, or cars!!!) in the automotive industry - based on this DJ Index. Which is one of the most prominent sustainability-measuring indexes right now.

Much more then eg. Daimler, VW, or even Toyota.

 

[SCOTT27]

Premium: Yes.

Luxury: No.

BMW does currently not offer any car model beyond the common norm of sedans, entry level cars and SUV. Their portfolio has no aspirational cars such as the G-Class, R8, 911, CL or SLR. Mercedes and Porsche have a stronger luxury brand value, Audi is now closing in.

All very well for the select few that can afford these premium models but BMW is more focused on it's strategy that will define Premium by sustainability.
We have discussed more times than often about how BMW have used their abilities on defining it's premium interest in it's small compact class because this is the segment that outsells all of the above.
With the economic climate we have seen customers of every manufacturer downsize to smaller premium vehicles.
BMW intends to capitalize on this by an expansive compact programme for both the 1er and the MINI brand. Does a performance car have to enter the price realm of an R8 etc to be exciting when a compact sports coupe could offer a lighter more efficient dynamic driveable car with alternative drive trains for a fraction of the price?

BMW made it's name in small sports sedans and Coupes as a purveyor of really sporty dynamic cars. A time that BMW are bringing back for the future with compact exciting small cars that will be for all tastes.
The compact market is the segment that will grow as customers clamour for smaller exciting cars.

 

[NarutoRamen]

Ignoring all the luxury talk...

Congrats to BMW. 5th consecutive year! Good Job!

 

[Merc1]

How in the world can the supposed to be marketing savy people here think that having a car like the GT-R doesn't help Nissan's image with buyers of their regular models?

That is nothing but "we (BMW) don't have a halo car so we don't see how it could help anyone else" proproganda.

A Nissan buyer getting his 370Z surely does, more often than not I'd bet, aspires to own a GT-R someday.

On the other hand the NSX did nothing for Acura since the rest of their cars were about as thrilling as dishwater and they had no other sports cars...and they left the NSX to wither on the vine for 14 years.

Point being you can't just make this assumption that having a halo car doesn't help any brand. There is no way that can be true for every brand out there.

Audi and Nissan in particular do benefit image wise from having halo cars because the rest of their lineup is sporty and/or they have other sports cars.

Acura, Chevy, and even possibly Lexus (pending supercar) not so much.

Core models do make the image true, but a halo model also helps further it when the halo car has the right supporting cast (i.e. regular models) as Nissan and Audi have.

BMW's image and draw with the deep pocket buyers that pick Mercedes/Maserati/Aston-Martin/Porsche over BMW, would benefit greatly with a halo car. How else do you further your image in the eyes of the upper crust buyers? A better 3-Series isn't going to do it, nor is a better 7-Series.


M