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Over recent months a collage of rumors surrounding a fourth brand under the BMW umbrella have been circulating, which may now be coming into clearer focus. With government fuel economy and emissions standards tightening both in the US and abroad, BMW, like other carmakers, is being forced to develop more earth-conscious vehicles to offset the fire-breathing monsters from their M division and the behemoths from Rolls-Royce.

The answer may be to go after arch-rival Daimler's smart brand, but rather than going super-modern, BMW is tipped to design its line-up of city cars around a retro theme. Isetta, which made tiny commuter cars in the 50's, has been touted as one strong possibility, more likely than the prospect of reviving Triumph into a smart rival when its roots are in roadsters. We reported on the Isetta rumor back in November, but according to AutoExpress, development of the new city-car is officially underway. Whatever badge the new BMW city cars would wear, insiders suggest that motivation would come from small turbocharged gasoline and diesel engines, while hybrids would be reserved for SUVs and other larger vehicles.

[Source: Auto Express]

BMW mini-car development underway originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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click above image for gallery of the BMW CS Concept, which is destined for production

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer revealed the automaker's plans for the future, all the way up to 2020. There's lots of stuff in works, but we'll try to hit each point here. First off, the company's got a short-term five-year plan of achieving annual sales of 1.8 million vehicles by 2012. After that, it will have another eight years to reach annual sales of 2 million by 2020. Those are big jumps from today, but BMW plans to reach them by increasing production at its Spartanburg plant in the U.S., as well as the MINI plant in Oxford. Of course, the growing Chinese market will also demand more BMWs, and the automaker will be happy to oblige.

Increasing production of what's currently offered in BMW dealerships won't get the automaker all that far, so a slew of new vehicles were also announced by Reithofer. These include expanding BMW's range of SUVs with a small X1 model, as well as producing a four-door Gran Turismo car based off of the CS Concept that debuted in Shanghai this year. The BMW brand will also debut what it calls a Progressive Activity Sedan, or PAS, about which it divulged little, so we'll have to wait for more details on exactly what makes it different from a standard sedan.

Find out the rest of BMW's new models after the jump, as well as the very long speech from BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer in its entirety.

[Source: BMW]

Gallery: BMW Concept CS

Continue reading BMW plans for future: 2 million by 2020, new models and fourth brand?

BMW plans for future: 2 million by 2020, new models and fourth brand? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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