We are now past the halfway mark through a highly eventful year, and though many car manufacturers were forced to adjust their production targets in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and other seismic events, the BMW Group reports that it remains on track toward achieving its goals for the full year.
BMW Group’s quick implementation of controlled cutbacks at its manufacturing facilities worldwide afforded it a coordinated restart of production in the second quarter. As early as the middle of June, all BMW production plants have resumed working in regular shifts.
Even with the relatively speedy recovery, BMW still keeps a close eye on cost efficiency and cash management, which the company admits are the “decisive factors for best controlling the consequences of the corona pandemic.”
“Our swift responsiveness and consistent management strategy enabled us to limit the impact of the corona pandemic on the BMW Group during the first half of the year,” said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
As global automotive sales took a tumble following the COVID-19 situation across the board, BMW still managed a before-taxes profit of EUR498 million (PHP29 billion) for the first half of the year. With this in mind, Zipse said that the group is cautiously optimistic about its second half performance.
“We are monitoring the situation very closely and managing production capacities in line with market developments and regional fluctuations in customer demand,” he added.
The BMW Group also reiterated its commitment to invest in future-oriented technology and develop its expertise in related fields appropriately, with the intention to invest more than EUR30 billion (PHP1.75 trillion) in research and development up to 2025 to remain at the forefront of automotive innovation.
“Our Performance Program is making a significant earnings contribution,” stated Nicolas Peter, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Finance. “Over the past three years or so, this program has laid the groundwork for key improvements, which we are now benefiting from and which enable us to drive forward the necessary changes.”
Aside from future-technologies, the Group is also placing more importance on sustainability. One of its major targets toward this end is to reduce CO2 emissions per vehicle by at least one third by 2030 compared with 2019 levels.
“Sustainability and digitization are the key issues of the coming decade. Particularly in these challenging times we need to set the right course in this respect,” said Zipse. “We not only combine product excellence with state-of-the-art digital technologies – we also design them to promote our sustainability goals. Our customers as well as society in general will benefit from this strategy.”
The BMW Group is already a leading manufacturer of electrified vehicles. By the end of 2021, it will be offering five all-electric, series-produced automobiles in the guise of the BMW i3, BMW iX3, BMW iNEXT and BMW i4.
The next generation of the BMW 7 Series will also soon be available with four different types of drivetrain, including an electrified plug-in hybrid, and for the first time, an all-electric battery-powered version.
The current generation BMW 7 Series sedan is available locally at a price range of PHP8.99 to PHP13.89 million.
Photo/s from BMW
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