Right positioning, right price: BMW insists product offensive ‘not just about sales’

BMW is looking to new models - many of them and particularly at the top end of the premium segment - to revitalise momentum as competition from Mercedes-Benz and Audi heats up. It has pledged to launch 40 new or revised models by the end of next year, an offensive which kicked off with the new BMW 5 Series launch in February. With just two years to roll out the most intensive product onslaught in history, the OEM has no illusions that it will come easy.

"We have always been ambitious. We will continue to be so. We are going on the offensive," Chief Executive Harald Krueger told media and analysts at the annual accounts press conference. The supercharged product rollout comes after a year of record sales volumes, revenues and earnings figures, but volumes trailed Mercedes for the first time since 2005 and profitability slipped 2.2%.