Rumors: BMW To Create Eco-Friendly 4th Brand

Mark our words; over the next few months we’re going to be hearing a lot of rumours about BMW Group (BMW, MINI & Rolls Royce) and its alleged 4th brand. Following last week’s report from UK magazine Autoexpress referring to the renaissance of the Triumph brand (BMW holds the rights to the name), German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche is now reporting that the Bavarians are in search of an engineering firm that will help them develop a series of eco-friendly vehicles for a new brand.

In his speech towards the group’s shareholders back in September, BMW Group CEO , Norbert Reithofer did not rule out acquisitions or the creation of a new brand. However Reithofer did note that none of the existing brands fit neatly into the group.

Ok, so BMW is interested in adding a fourth brand to its portfolio. What next? Well, basically the Bavarian’s have three options: A- Acquire an existing brand that’s for sale (eg. Volvo), B- Create a new brand from scratch and C- Revive a brand using one of the names you hold the rights to (eg. Triumph). Every option has its pros and cons, but to make a long story short, we’d go for option “B”; create a new brand. An “eco-friendly” brand sounds even better. -Continued after the jump

Why go into all that hassle to buy an existing carmaker along with factories, debts etc or use one of the useless Brit names (petrolheads aside, the younger generations have no idea of obsolete marques like Truimph). We’re not saying that it’s going to be easy (think Mercedes-Benz and Smart), but BMW has proven the past two decades that, with the exception of the failed Rover/MG-Rover Group marriage, it can create and market vehicles that people want to buy.

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