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BMW pledges $600,000 to bushfire appeals, brings car industry total to in excess of $6 million

German carmaker BMW has joined the long list of car companies in Australia donating funds to bushfire recovery efforts.


The pledge of $600,000 from BMW and its dealers brings the total donations from the Australian car industry to in excess of $6 million.

Volkswagen has pledged $2.5 million, Holden $1 million and Toyota in excess of $473,000, while other brands such as Kia, Honda, Hyundai and Mitsubishi have declined to nominate a figure.

The boss of BMW Australia, Vikram Pawah, told a press conference in Sydney this week: “Our thoughts are with those lives that have been lost – including the precious wildlife and natural habitats – and the millions of hectares of farmland that has been damaged.”

He added: “We also express the deepest respect and admiration for the firefighters who have heroically protected people, properties and generally preventing the situation from being so much worse. Two of our own staff members even fought blazes in some of the most severe conditions imaginable.”

BMW says it has been a part of the Australian community since 1979, “so this crisis affects our company and all of us who work there as deeply as anyone else”.

It goes beyond our borders to the top of our organisation,” said Mr Pawah. “Our donation to the relief efforts was fully supported by BMW in Munich; an ample demonstration that those in our head office in Germany were as deeply shocked as us and completely on board with the contribution”.

BMW Australia and BMW dealers collectively have pledged to donate $600,000 “which will be equally split between the Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery appeal, which is supporting with evacuation centres and recovery hubs – and the WWF, the most influential independent conservation organisation in the world,” said Mr Pawah.

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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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