BMW

This article is about the German motor vehicle manufacturer. For other uses, see BMW (disambiguation).

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

Logo since 2020

BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany

Type Public (Aktiengesellschaft)

Traded as FWB: BMW

DAX Component

Industry Automotive

Predecessors Rapp Motorenwerke

Bayerische Flugzeugwerke
Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach

Founded 7 March 1916; 106 years ago

 Camillo Castiglioni
Founders
 Franz Josef Popp
 Karl Rapp

Headquarters Munich
,
 Germany

Area served Worldwide (except Russia)

Key people Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of

Management
Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the
Supervisory Board

Products  Cars
 Motorcycles

Production output 2,521,514 cars (2021)

 194,261 motorcycles (2021)[1]

Brands  Automobiles
 Alpina
 BMW
 BMW i
 BMW M
 BMW X
 DriveNow
 Mini
 Rolls-Royce
 Motorcycles
 BMW Motorrad

Services Financial services

Revenue €111.239 billion (2021)[1]

Operating income €16.060 billion (2021)[1]

Net income €12.463 billion (2021)[1]

Total assets €229.527 billion (2021)[1]

Total equity €75.132 billion (2021)[1]

Owners Public float (50%);

Stefan Quandt (29%),
Susanne Klatten (21%)

Number of 118,909 (2021)[1]

employees

Website bmw.com
bmwgroup.com

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly referred to as BMW (German pronunciation: [ˌbeːʔɛmˈveː] ( listen)), is a
German multinational corporate manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria,
Germany. The corporation was founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917
until 1918 and again from 1933 to 1945.
Automobiles are marketed under the brands BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, and motorcycles are marketed under the
brand BMW Motorrad. In 2017, BMW was the world's fourteenth-largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,279,503
vehicles produced.[2] The company has significant motor-sport history, especially in touring cars, sports cars, and
the Isle of Man TT.
BMW is headquartered in Munich and produces motor vehicles in Germany, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, the
Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Quandt family is a long-term
shareholder of the company (with the remaining shares owned by public float), following investments by the
brothers Herbert and Harald Quandt in 1959 which saved the company from bankruptcy.

History

Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik was founded in 1910 by Gustav Otto in Bavaria. The firm was reorganized on 7 March
1916 into Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG. This company was then renamed to Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW)
in 1922. However the name BMW dates back to 1913, when the original company to use the name was founded
by Karl Rapp (initially as Rapp Motorenwerke GmbH). The name and Rapp Motorenwerke's engine-production
assets were transferred to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1922, who adopted the name the same year.[3] BMW's first
product was a straight-six aircraft engine called the BMW IIIa, designed in the spring of 1917 by engineer Max Friz.
Following the end of World War I, BMW remained in business by producing motorcycle engines, farm equipment,
household items and railway brakes. The company produced its first motorcycle, the BMW R 32 in 1923.
BMW became an automobile manufacturer in 1928 when it purchased Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach, which, at the time,
built Austin Sevens under licence under the Dixi marque.[4] The first car sold as a BMW was a rebadged Dixi called
the BMW 3/15, following BMW's acquisition of the car manufacturer Automobilwerk Eisenach. Throughout the
1930s, BMW expanded its range into sports cars and larger luxury cars.
Aircraft engines, motorcycles, and automobiles would be BMW's main products until World War II. During the war,
against the wishes of its director Franz Josef Popp,[citation needed] BMW concentrated on aircraft engine production using
as many as 40,000 slave laborers.[5] These consisted primarily of prisoners from concentration camps, most
prominently Dachau. Motorcycles remained as a side-line and automobile manufacture ceased altogether.
BMW's factories were heavily bombed during the war and its remaining West German facilities were banned from
producing motor vehicles or aircraft after the war. Again, the company survived by making pots, pans, and bicycles.
In 1948, BMW restarted motorcycle production. BMW resumed car production in Bavaria in 1952 with the BMW
501 luxury saloon. The range of cars was expanded in 1955, through the production of the cheaper Isetta microcar
under licence. Slow sales of luxury cars and small profit margins from microcars meant BMW was in serious
financial trouble and in 1959 the company was nearly taken over by rival Daimler-Benz.
A large investment in BMW by Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt resulted in the company surviving as a separate
entity. The Quandt's father, Günther Quandt, was a well-known German industrialist. Quandt joined the Nazi party
in 1933 and made a fortune arming the German Wehrmacht, manufacturing weapons and batteries.[6] Many of his
enterprises were appropriated from Jewish owners under duress with minimal compensation. At least three of his
enterprises made extensive use of slave laborers, as many as 50,000 in all.[7] One of his battery factories had its
own on-site concentration camp, complete with gallows. Life expectancy for laborers was six months.[7] While
Quandt and BMW were not directly connected during the war, funds amassed in the Nazi era by his father allowed
Herbert Quandt to buy BMW.[5]
The BMW 700 was successful and assisted in the company's recovery.
The 1962 introduction of the BMW New Class compact sedans was the beginning of BMW's reputation as a leading
manufacturer of sport-oriented cars. Throughout the 1960s, BMW expanded its range by adding coupe and luxury
sedan models. The BMW 5 Series mid-size sedan range was introduced in 1972, followed by the BMW 3
Series compact sedans in 1975, the BMW 6 Series luxury coupes in 1976 and the BMW 7 Series large luxury
sedans in 1978.
The BMW M division released its first road car, a mid-engine supercar, in 1978. This was followed by the BMW
M5 in 1984 and the BMW M3 in 1986. Also in 1986, BMW introduced its first V12 engine in the 750i luxury sedan.
The company purchased the Rover Group in 1994, however the takeover was not successful and was causing
BMW large financial losses. In 2000, BMW sold off most of the Rover brands, retaining only the Mini brand.
In 1998, BMW also acquired the rights to the Rolls Royce brand from Vickers Plc.
The 1995 BMW Z3 expanded the line-up to include a mass-production two-seat roadster and the 1999 BMW
X5 was the company's entry into the SUV market.
The first modern mass-produced turbocharged petrol engine was introduced in 2006, (from 1973 to 1975, BMW
built 1672 units of a turbocharged M10 engine for the BMW 2002 turbo),[8] with most engines switching over to
turbocharging over the 2010s. The first hybrid BMW was the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7, and BMW's first mass-
production electric car was the BMW i3 city car, which was released in 2013, (from 1968 to 1972, BMW built two
battery-electric BMW 1602 Elektro saloons for the 1972 Olympic Games).[9] After many years of establishing a
reputation for sporting rear-wheel drive cars, BMW's first front-wheel drive car was the 2014 BMW 2 Series Active
Tourer multi-purpose vehicle (MPV).
In January 2021, BMW announced that its sales in 2020 fell by 8.4% due to the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic and the restrictions. However, in the fourth quarter of 2020, BMW witnessed a rise of 3.2% of its
customers' demands.

Branding

Company name[edit]
BMW is an abbreviation for Bayerische Motoren Werke (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪ̯ʁɪʃə mɔˈtʰɔʁn̩ ˈvɛɐ̯kə]). This name
is grammatically incorrect (in German, compound words must not contain spaces), which is why the name's
grammatically correct form Bayerische Motorenwerke (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪ̯ʁɪʃə mɔˈtʰɔʁn̩vɛɐ̯kə] ( listen)) has
been used in several publications and advertisements in the past.[11][12] Bayerische Motorenwerke translates into
English as Bavarian Motor Works.[13] The suffix AG, short for Aktiengesellschaft, signifies an incorporated entity
which is owned by shareholders, thus akin to "Inc." (US) or PLC, "Public Limited Company" (UK).
The terms Beemer, Bimmer and Bee-em are sometimes used as slang for BMW in the English language[14][15] and
are sometimes used interchangeably for cars and motorcycles.[16][17][18]

Logo[edit]
The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel evolved from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo,
which featured a black ring bearing the company name surrounding the company logo,[19] on a plinth a horse's head
couped.[20]
BMW retained Rapp's black ring inscribed with the company name, but adopted as the central element a circular
escutcheon bearing a quasi-heraldic reference to the coat of arms (and flag) of the Free State of Bavaria (as the
state of their origin was named after 1918), being the arms of the House of Wittelsbach, Dukes and Kings of
Bavaria.[19] However, as the local law regarding trademarks forbade the use of state coats of arms or other symbols
of sovereignty on commercial logos, the design was sufficiently differentiated to comply, but retained
the tinctures azure (blue) and argent (white).[21][19][22]
The current iteration of the logo was introduced in 2020,[23] removing 3D effects that had been used in renderings of
the logo, and also removing the black outline encircling the rondel. The logo will be used on BMW's branding but will
not be used on vehicles.