2011 Bmw 528i - Excellent Condition - Loaded! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW CEO faints on stage at Frankfurt press conference

Newly minted BMW AG CEO Harald Kruger has had a rough start to his first Frankfurt Motor Show in that position. Kruger fainted about five minutes into the BMW press conference. A pair of assistants helped the executive to his feet and off-stage, and, understandably, the presser was cancelled. A report in Financial Times indicates that Kruger was not feeling well leading up to his appearance at the show, and that the fainting spell was a result of "a moment of dizziness." Kruger was taken to an area hospital where he is said to be recovering from the incident, and in stable condition. The life of the top dog at a major automaker has got to be stress-filled, sleep-deprived, and hard to handle under normal circumstances, let alone before a major exhibition like Frankfurt. We wish Kruger a speedy recovery getting back to it. And we're certain that he'll face a busy schedule, once again, when he's back on his feet. The CEO replaced Norbert Reithhofer in May of this year, and now oversees a BMW with as big a model lineup as the brand has known, including the recently launched new 7 Series. Here in Frankfurt, BMW is also featuring the new-for-2016 X1 small crossover, while the Mini brand has unwrapped the revised Clubman. News Source: Financial TimesImage Credit: AP Frankfurt Motor Show BMW Frankfurt 2015

Chairman says BMW will make 100,000 electric vehicles a year by 2020

We know demand for the BMW i3 has been high, both in the US and Europe. It appears that BMW's crystal ball is showing a steady increase in interest between now and 2020. By that year, according to Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the board of management for BMW AG, the company expects to build 100,000 units a year. That's not quite as EVs many as Tesla is talking about for 2020 (500,000), but it would represent quite an increase from the roughly 20,000 units that the best-selling plug-in vehicles moved in 2013. Reithofer told Automotive News that plug-in vehicle production would steadily increase by 2018 before hitting full stride at the end of the decade. He also made sure to clarify that there was external pressure to make 100,000 EVs a year: "we will be forced to build them in a six digits figure to comply with stricter emission rules." The plug-in electric vehicles are just one part of BMW's effort to reduce emissions. In prepared remarks delivered at the company's annual accounts press conference (available in full below), Reithofer said, "Customer demand [for i3] is exceeding our expectations. ... We believe the electric motor is a future technology for zero-emission driving in urban areas. Battery technology will continue to progress. ... When it comes to emission-free long-distance driving, however, electric cars featuring hydrogen fuel cell technology offer great potential." He didn't say how many fuel cell cars BMW expects to make and sell in 2020, but BMW's collaboration with Daimler and Renault-Nissan is supposed to launch the "world's first affordable, mass-market fuel cell electric vehicles as early as 2017." Statement and presentation by Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Annual Accounts Press Conference 2014 19.03.2014 Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen! The core task of a company is to safeguard its future. This means we must ensure that our products and services are always inspiring our customers. We need to think ahead and continually take our business model to the next level. We also have to remain profitable so we can invest and bring new ideas to life. Our ambition of the BMW Group is: Always to consider the long term in all our planning, to follow our own path successfully, and to be a pioneer in our industry. Our business model is clear: Individual mobility in the premium segment.

All 25 James Bond movies ranked only by their cars

There is no shortage of lists ranking the best James Bond movies. Ditto lists about the best or worst James Bond cars. I know, I've written some of them. As such, why not combine the two ideas into one new list that ranks all 25 official James Bond movies based exclusively on their cars, or more accurately their car content. I would then pull from my 25 years of James Bond nerddom plus the excellent "Bond Cars: The Definitive History" and our interview with long-time Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould to provide tidbits and factoids about the cars and their roles in the movies. And yes(!), this list now includes "No Time to Die," which impresses by adding plenty of car content to the series. It's now available on Blu-ray and download. To determine the list, I considered the inherent coolness of the cars as well as their importance to Bond, film and car history. I considered their importance to the story as well as the quality/excitement of the chases and scenes they participated in. Finally, I tried my best to divorce the car content from my opinions about the movies in general. That my personal list of best James movies looks nothing like this shows I was at least partially successful.     25. 'Moonraker' There are virtually no cars in "Moonraker." None. Oh, there's a gondola on wheels that makes a pigeon do a double-take, but that's not the same thing as a car. Neither is a golf cart. Or an ambulance. Or a space shuttle.   24. 'From Russia With Love' The literary James Bond mostly drove an ancient Bentley, and "From Russia with Love" is the only film in which it appears. It stays parked and the coolest thing that happens (by 1962 standards) is 007 answers its car phone. Thereafter, we get some old cars (even by 1962 standards) driving around Istanbul and a yellow truck. So yeah. Classic Bond film, a must-watch, just not for its car content.   23. 'Dr. No' History records that the first "Bond car" is the Sunbeam Alpine in "Dr. No." The car itself was literally borrowed from a Miss Jennifer Jackson of 53 Lady Musgrave Road in Jamaica for 10 pounds per day for two days during filming. Also, the stunt where it drove under an excavator blocking the road was entirely conceived because the filmmakers showed up to the road they intended to film on and discovered an excavator blocking the thing. Sadly, those are really the only two things interesting about the Alpine, which is a pretty small and dainty thing by Bond car standards.