Tom Kristensen, in a BMW-engined Williams FW21B, tested the latest version of Michelin F1 tyres in Miramas. The Dane was very impressed with the standard of the Michelin program and the technical progress the engineers achieved between the two 4-day sessions.
Speculations have come to an end: Michelin will participate in Formula 1 racing from the 2001 season. Initially, the company will supply tyres to the BMW/Williams team and, at some time before 2003, Michelin will team up with Team Toyota, who confirmed their entry into the sport earlier this week. Michelin has competed in F1 before, from 1977 to 1984, winning three Drivers’ and two Constructors’ titles. The reason for entering the sport now is to increase world-wide recognition for the Michelin brand.
The sale of Land Rover to Ford by BMW – a deal which was in doubt recently – has been finalised. BMW agreed to Ford’s stipulation that one third of the asking price of 3 bn Euros will not be paid until the year 2005.
The BMW factory at Spartanburg (South Carolina), in which in addition to the Roadster ever more X5 off-road vehicles are produced, will soon face production capacity problems. A higher vehicle output could also benefit American wheel suppliers such as Superior Industries or Alcoa/Reynolds.
Beru AG (Ludwigsburg/Germany) has announced growing demand for its tyre pressure control system. As well as the BMW 3, 5 and 7 series, Mercedes S- and AMG E-class and SLK and Audi A8, the tyre safety device is now also available as an option for Mercedes CL Coupe and Audi allroad Quattro, and from autumn for the BMW X5.
The news group Reuters has been named as sponsor of the BMW-Williams F1 team for three years. In December, BMW and oil company Castrol announced that they would work together but the main sponsor was only revealed today.
Jim O’Donnell (50) has been appointed Managing Director of BMW (GB), effective June 1. He succeeds Kevin Gaskell, who left the company in February. O’Donnell’s former roles include Sales & Marketing Director for BMW South Africa and, most recently, Sales Director of BMW (GB).
Hayes Lemmerz, the world’s leading supplier of wheels, has announced record 1999 fourth quarter and full year figures in both earnings and sales. The strong expansion of the wheel business (especially aluminium wheels) and the acquisition of CMI are the main reasons for the good results. Hayes Lemmerz also announced the contract for its sixth wheel/tire assembly facility: for BMW in Munich.
The Phoenix consortium and BMW have signed a deal to sell Rover to Phoenix. BMW has contributed £500 million to the deal and additional finance has been obtained by American company Burdale Financial. It is expected that 2,000 jobs will be lost, which is fewer than would have been lost under the plan of Alchemy Partners who had pulled out of talks with BMW recently.
The news that BMW was going to sell its loss-making (1999 losses alone were 1 billion Euros) subsidiary Rover provoked an understandably strong reaction in Britain. Some estimated that 50,000 jobs (including those of suppliers) could be lost and BMW’s name was mud with workers, unions and the British Government, which accused BMW of lying. Undeterred, BMW began breaking up the Rover group, selling Land Rover to Ford for 3 billion Euros and the Longbridge car factory to venture capitalists Alchemy Partners, with BMW writing off debts of £2 million. BMW is retaining the factory at Cowley, where the new Mini will be made. Alchemy plans to re-name Rover as MG Cars and to move away from volume production to make sports cars and sports saloons. This would keep the Longbridge factory open, but with a much reduced workforce. Amid the thousands of paragraphs criticising BMW, some industry pundits have questioned the vulnerability of the German group and there are rumours of larger companies (VW and Ford are two who have been mentioned) sniffing around BMW. The major shareholder in BMW is the Quandt family, whose members insist that the company will remain independent. More details in the April issue of TYRES & ACCESSORIES.
Hayes Lemmerz International is going to acquire the Schenk foundry in Germany in order to expand its suspension presence in Europe. Klaus Jünger, President European Chassis Components Group said that “this is an excellent base for our expansion in Europe.” Major customers of Schenk are Audi, BMW, Opel and Porsche.
The German insurance company “Allianz” wants to become involved in Formula 1. As the newspaper Die Welt announced recently, Aliens wants to sponsor the Williams-BMW team. Already with the coming German Grand Prix in two weeks at the Nürburgring, the company label will be on the racing car of the British team. It was mentioned that the insurance intends to invest 50 million DM (£16.3 million) in the team of Ralf Schuhmacher and Jensen Button.
Sales up till July seem to be in line with last year’s strong performance. Ford is one of the winners, GM is stagnating and Chrysler heavily losing market share. BMW, Porsche and some of the Japanese and Korean car manufacturers are performing particularly well.
Perhaps as a backlash following the BMW/Rover situation, and aided by lower prices for Mercedes and Audi, UK sales of BMW cars fell 20% in April. Sales of Rover cars rose 500% as Rover and its dealers acted to clear stocks because of the uncertain situation.
Dr. Wolfgang Ziebarth (50), former member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, will be appointed to the company’s Executive Board with effect from October 1st, 2000. In December, Dr. Ziebarth is to assume responsibility for the Continental Automotive Systems Group, thus succeeding Hans Albert Beller (62) who is to begin his planned retirement after building up the unit for the past seven years.
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