The rumors of BMW's new green brand have been circulating for months. We talked about the possibility back in January and November. A bit of news came in early February with the discussion of a revived Isetta small car. Automotive News (subs req'd) is now reporting that the Isetta rumors - or, as one of our readers said, iSetta - might be coming true. BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer told AN that a 12-member planning group called "Project i" has been working behind the scenes for about a year to discuss forming a new brand just for BMW's alternative-fuel vehicles. Reithofer said that the group, "Is fully independent and even free to act beyond BMW structures if necessary." BMW may build a small EV and if it does, the badge is just as unknown at this point as the look and battery type.Of course, there's no reason BMW can't find religion on just greening up the BMW brand itself. I mean, a 520d gets better mileage than a Prius, don't ya know? Would an all-electric BMW city car be too much brand dilution?
[Source: Automotive News (subs req'd)]
1. It doesn't really matter what badge is on the vehicle, as long as it's built well and priced to sell in volume, with a dealer network set up to do that. BMW has invested a lot into building performance and sophistication as the core brand equity for both BMW and Mini, with premiums to match.
Since green cars are perceived as either poor performers or socialism on wheels by customers of those brands, it does make sense for BMW to consider creating a new one. This is especially true it it finds a partner that also needs such a low-profit vehicle just to comply with California's ZEV mandate (Mercedes?) - or is far enough along the development curve to make a de facto takeover preferably to in-house development (Loremo, Think?)
Posted at 1:51PM on Mar 24th 2008 by rgseidl