Isetta BMW?

BMW AG is contemplating releasing a fourth brand, to sell alongside its Mini, BMW and Rolls-Royce marques.

Furthermore, the new brand would likely be a launch pad for radical ideas that go beyond the physical vehicle, tackling future mobility problems, production techniques, and support and infrastructure issues.

According to Ian Robertson, member of the BMW Group board for sales and marketing, BMW has created a think-tank within the company to help identify niches as well as find solutions to future personal transportation problems.

“We explained and discussed last year the options we had at looking at a fourth brand,” Mr Robertson remarked.

“However no decision was made, or we decided not to do it at that point of time. Whether we do something at some point in the future remains to be seen.

“One thing that we had said is that we are working on a ‘blue sky’ project, which is called ‘Project i’ (with a little ‘i’) which in essence is brought together from the various disciplines in the company.

“Their brief is to see what the future of mobility will be in to the mid to long term.” Mr Robertson said that BMW is thinking outside of the box by assessing all aspects of motoring in the future, from production techniques and materials to marketing and distribution directions.

“(Project i) is coming up with some very interesting concepts, and that’s not just about what the car could be and how it might be powered, but also how it could be made... how it would be sold... whatever.

“And over the 12 to 18 months that will start to crystallise into more concrete opportunities.

“That may involve the use of another brand – and it may not. It may be a brand that we currently use – Mini, Rolls-Royce or BMW.

Bitty BMW: The virtually-forgotten E1 Concept of 1991 was an earlier exercise in electric city-car possibilities for BMW.

Several overseas reports have already suggested that the Isetta name could be revived by BMW as an umbrella brand for Project i.

The BMW Isetta was based on the early 1950s Italian microcar of the same name. Launched by the Germans in 1955, it featured a 10kW 247cc four-stroke one-cylinder motorcycle engine. Over 160,000 were built until 1962.

BMW itself fuelled speculation in September when it cheekily displayed an Isetta at the Goodwood Revival classic car, motorcycle and aerocraft meeting in England, as part of a ‘past and future concepts’ show.

Nevertheless, Mr Robertson would not comment on an Isetta revival, although he did say that the electric Mini run that BMW announced recently falls under the Project i jurisdiction.

“We will show one of the cars that comes out of this project in the short term, as the Mini Electric,” Mr Robertson stated.

In July, BMW said that it would carry out global trials involving around 500 Minis, which will be modified with “purely electric” powertrains.

Zero-emissions plug-in electric vehicles could be required in the US if proposed Californian legislation is approved for introduction in 2012, with at least 12 other states in America poised to follow.

The Mini Electric would also help the BMW Group reach the projected European corporate emissions levels that are also set down for 2012.

The vehicles are being built without drivetrains at Mini’s Oxford plant in the UK before being sent to Germany to be fitted with electric motors, batteries and transmissions, with testing to be conducted in Europe and California over the next 18 months.

At the time, BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer said that the goal is to combine “...the ultimate driving experience with an efficient electrified drive with practically no emissions.” He also stated that the Mini Electric program would not divert from BMW’s commitment to its hydrogen combustion engine program in the long-term, Mr Robertson believes the lessons to be learned from the Mini Electric program are manifold.

“What we’re doing now, in many respects, is an experiment of the research program. We would sell plus-minus 500 of them, and really see what the practicalities of running an electric car is – and it really is only electric.

“It drives like a Mini, but it doesn’t sound like a Mini – it doesn’t sound like anything. Which is one of the issues.

“What we want to see is how practical it is how it is used in terms of charging – do you need to charge it in your garage, or work do you need national car parks to have charging facilities... right the way through to showing all the elements relating to living with the car.

“For example, sound is an issue – and not just in terms for drivers, because it is strange that there is no noise, but for pedestrians there is an issue there too.

“Which is why we are going to do joint research with the German government and American government and maybe a couple of others, into what the practicalities of electricity are as well.

Mr Robertson said that the time is fast approaching for governments around the world to start acting too.

“If the car industry moves further down this road, then there are infrastructure issues, and infrastructure means long-term investments by governments into how you generate power in the same way if you produce electricity in Eastern Europe using old coal-fired power stations then you get a lot of CO2 if you produce it in Paris you’re using nuclear – so what is the position behind that? “There are loads of things in here that we want to analyse in a research-orientated way, as well as gain experience from producing electric power,” he added.

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