The London 2012 has a plethora of sponsors for every imaginable consumer item. And when it comes to vehicles, it is BMW that has won out over the impressive competition, becoming the Games’ primary automotive sponsor. 4000 BMW vehicles will be driven around the British capital next summer, and all fit in with the London Olympics’ ethos of being the greenest Games yet.
And while keeping emissions low is important in itself – and certainly to the people of London and the UK – the ability to showcase their products on such a high profile stage means that millions of people around the world will get to see what new green technologies BMW have been investing in.
It’s certainly a challenge for a company that has been largely built on big, petrol-guzzling premium vehicles to go green. And yet that is what it appears to be doing with cars like the BMW 520d – a vehicle that can travel an impressive 63 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel – whilst emitting 119 grams per kilogram of carbon dioxide. For those without a science degree – that is a pretty impressive claim.
BMW claims to have driven down emissions from its vehicles more than any other major car maker.
This green image should however be tempered by the fact that BMW’s future does not truly lie in Europe – where green issues tend to be much more important to people than in other parts of the world. It is in Asia and specifically China that BMW knows it will be getting most of its bacon over the next decades, not Old Europe. The problem for the green lobby, though, is the fact that the newly moneyed middle classes of China can’t impress their neighbours with little hybrids that help the environment – they want cars that are reliable, meaty and don’t require you to call for breakdown assistance every few hundred miles – the kind of solid, gas-guzzling ego-boosters that BMW are so good at making.
I suppose time will tell if the Chinese will go green along with the rest of us.
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