Tuesday 12 June 2012

Road - British BMW?


Clean - and quick!
Here’s a bit of good news. BMW has announced that its new generation of 3 cylinder petrol engines for the future BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car will be produced exclusively at the BMW engine plant at Hams Hall, near Birmingham.

Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Sales and Marketing said: “Our Hams Hall engine plant, which last week celebrated production of the three-millionth engine since the plant was opened in February 2001, will make an important contribution to the future success of the new BMW i brand and the company’s strategy for achieving sustainable mobility.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable was on hand to add: “BMW’s decision is more good news for the UK automotive sector and underlines its growing competitive strength. It is yet another indication that international companies see the UK as one of the best places to develop and manufacture low emission vehicle technologies.”

The engine for the future BMW i8 Concept will be an eDrive plug-in hybrid unit combining an electric drive system with a high performance three cylinder TwinPower Turbo engine producing 349 hp/300 Nm. BMW are predicting that 0-62 mph acceleration times will be under five seconds while the ‘combined’ fuel consumption figure is expected to be 78 mpg.

Using electric power alone, the i8 2+2 seater should have a range of approximately 20 miles, but with the small petrol engine ‘range extender’ it makes the i8 a truly practical vehicle.

The UK-built engines from Hams Hall are supplied in sequence to production plants in Germany, Austria and Oxford and currently power the BMW X1, BMW 1 Series, the new BMW 3 Series as well as all MINI petrol engines.

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