BMW Group has announced Vikram Pawah will take over from Marc Werner as Australia/New Zealand CEO on August 1. He'll be moving on from his role as BMW India's president, having joined the BMW Group in January 2017. His career in the auto industry spans more than 25 years...
UPDATE, 13/7/18: Mini's local division has confirmed the plug-in Countryman will be available from Q2 2019, along with supplying some local images. See article for details. BMW Group Australia has confirmed the Mini Countryman S E All4 PHEV (deep breath) is coming to Australia, due to land in the second quarter of next year...
The New South Wales Police Force has confirmed it will use the BMW 530d as Highway Patrol cars, becoming the second Australian authority to use the German sedan. "We are honoured by our association with the New South Wales Police Force and delighted that our officers will be driving BMW’s safe, efficient and dynamically superior vehicles," said Marc Werner, BMW Group Australia's CEO...
Two pioneering manufacturers in the electric vehicle (EV) market, BMW and Nissan, have called on the Australian Federal Government to incentivise buyers of low-emission cars, citing evidence from Europe, Asia and North America...
A report from the NRMA and Electric Vehicle Council has called for greater Government support of battery-powered vehicles. The Future is Electric lays out a six-point plan for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles in Australia, arguing “the humble car is undergoing a major paradigm shift”...
BMW Group Australia is kicking goals with local sales up 52 per cent over the past five years. In addition to sales success, the brand plans to launch 14 new models locally by 2020, further bolstering SUV sales and taking advantage of a surge in luxury car sales. Speaking with CarAdvice at the recent BMW 1 and 2 Series LCI launch, BMW Group Australia CEO Marc Werner said he is excited about BMW's future product offering...
With the Navara-based Mercedes-Benz X-Class just around the corner, BMW's local boss said he was 'surprised' with the Mercedes-Benz announcement. Speaking with CarAdvice at the recent 1 and 2 Series LCI launch, BMW Group Australia boss Marc Werner admitted the local arm was surprised with the announcement and the brand is watching the space closely...
The 2018 BMW X3 is a huge product for BMW globally and perhaps even more so in Australia, where SUVs play a major part in the brand's sales strategy, accounting for over 55 per cent of sales. Indeed, the new 2018 X3 is so important that BMW's global headquarters has green-lighted Australia's involvement in the global market launch, which will take place simultaneously on November 11 in Australia, Europe and the USA...
As BMW ramps up co-development of the next-generation BMW Z4 with Toyota, BMW's local boss wants to assure purists that the final Z4 product won't be anything like its Japanese counterpart. Speaking to CarAdvice at the recent 1 and 2 Series LCI launch, BMW Group Australia CEO Marc Werner said the new Z4 will still be "an ultimate driving machine"...
The boss of BMW's local arm has pulled no punches in his estimation of the Australian government, declaring it has fallen far behind other developed countries when it comes to legislation and strategies regarding low-emissions vehicles. Marc Werner, CEO for BMW Australia, said at the launch of the plug-in hybrid 530e iPerformance that the government has "stuck their collective heads in the sand"...
The slick BMW X2 small crossover is a sure thing to come to Australia to rival the Audi Q2 and Mercedes-Benz GLA, most likely in the first half of 2018. Previewed last September as a concept car, the X2 will be based on BMW Group’s UKL platform, which currently underpins the Mini Cooper, BMW X1 and the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer...
The 2019 BMW X7, a rival to the Mercedes-Benz GLS and the Range Rover, will come to Australia shortly after production kicks off in the US within a few years. The X7 will be the Bavarian brand's largest SUV, finally giving it a seven-seater to sit above its top-selling X5. Like the X5, it'll be made at BMW's Spartanburg plant in the US state of South Carolina, which is to receive a $1 billion upgrade...
BMW Australia managing director Marc-Heinrich Werner says the time for talk is over, and has demanded the federal government come to the table and create some policies to support the rollout of greener vehicles here, including a publicly-funded charging network to cover all brands...
The long-mooted introduction of BMW tuner Alpina to the Australian market was confirmed today, with the ADR-certified, 4 Series-based B4 Bi-Turbo launching in November. As you can read here, 50-year old Alpina has long been on the radar as Australia, as a sports-luxury yin to the BMW M Division’s hardcore performance yang...
It will surprise few to learn that the 2016 allocation of just 300 BMW M2 coupes for Australia was quickly exhausted. Orders flew out the door so quickly, BMW says, that many who missed out were spending up for an M3 or M4 rather than wait around for next year's deliveries. A clever strategy to boost sales of its more expensive M cars? Perhaps, but you can hardly begrudge a business acting like a business...
BMW Australia says there is room in its product portfolio for a larger proper seven-seater SUV in the form of the upcoming X7, a space that the current X5 with its third-row seating option doesn’t appear to be filling. Speaking to CarAdvice at the launch of the new BMW M2 at Targa Tasmania this week, BMW CEO Mark Werner admitted that sales of seven-seater X5s were not that high, despite healthy market demand for more than five seats in that segment...
The response by Australian buyers to the BMW ‘i’ sub-brand has been profoundly positive, with the German brand's local head revealing it all but underestimated local demand. Speaking to CarAdvice at the launch of the new BMW M2 at Targa Tasmania this week, BMW Australia CEO Mark Werner said the response to BMW’s first foray into a standalone electrified sub-brand has been a local and global sales success...
The BMW M2 is expected to substantially grow the volume of the M performance brand locally, with wait times for the high-end performance coupe already pushing towards the end of the year. Speaking to CarAdvice at the launch of the new BMW M2 at Targa Tasmania this week, BMW Australia CEO Mark Werner said that being able to plug the hole in the M model line-up with the M2, will provide considerable growth...
