The dedicated motorist choosing a BMW should always be certain that he or she is purchasing a car able to offer maximum driving pleasure on the highest possible level of all-round economy. And under the term “EfficientDynamics”, BMW sums up all development activities serving to achieve this supreme standard.

At the Innovation Day 2006, BMW is presenting the latest developments in drivetrain technology, energy management, and materials technology which help to convincingly fulfil current and future-oriented customer wishes for even more efficient energy concepts and to master the challenges of tomorrow. Customer demand for vehicles offering higher output and performance together with increasingly diverse comfort and safety functions, and all this on less fuel, requires the utmost of the specialist in automotive development.

Innovation overcoming conflicts of interest.

Striving for EfficientDynamics, BMW is pursuing a strategy fit for the future and setting the trend in every respect. This strategy leads to vehicles reflecting the core value of the BMW brand – Sheer Driving Pleasure – in the same way as they meet the demands of the modern, future-oriented customer. The EfficientDynamics concept therefore consistently relates all factors of performance, fuel consumption, and weight to one another, providing target-oriented innovations on the drivetrain, in lightweight technology and aerodynamics, and providing the further option to overcome conflicts of interest.


Some of the latest achievements of this kind are presented at the BMW Innovation Day 2006. The combustion engines featured in BMW’s current models, for example, are not only exceptionally powerful, but also, through their high degree of all-round efficiency, make a significant contribution in reaching the objectives described. Intelligent use of materials and modern production technology, in turn, serve to limit the weight of vehicles despite their growing range of features and equipment.

Moving consistently from research to production.

The philosophy of EfficientDynamics covers all areas of automobile development within the BMW Group. And since this includes the development of fundamentally new solutions, researchers in materials technology search consistently for new materials helping to optimise the weight of the car and enhance driving pleasure accordingly.

BMW Group specialists working in this area have a level of competence and know-how truly outstanding not only within the automotive industry. Indeed, in the demands they make of new materials, BMW’s development specialists set significant standards in the area of materials research. And at the same time they are in a position to upgrade the latest findings in scientific research quickly and efficiently to the standard of perfection required for practical use. As a result, the customer receives a vehicle which, in the sum total of its qualities, always represents the latest state of the art – which means also making specific parts and components out of materials which did not even exist before in this form and thus give a BMW truly unique qualities.

The front side panel on the BMW 3 Series Coupé, for example, is made of a synthetic material never used before and therefore exclusive to BMW. Also in terms of design freedom and temperature resistance, this extremely light component offers qualities no synthetic material was ever able to provide before.

The leadership in technology of the BMW Group thus provides customer benefits only BMW is able to offer: the front side panel in the BMW 3 Series Coupé is not only lighter than a conventional side panel made of steel, but also sustains less damage in a minor impact.

The BMW Group is likewise fully consistent in engine development, proceeding from the theoretical concept to the actual driving experience. But the approach taken in this case need not necessarily be the fastest one, since it is also part of BMW’s philosophy to weigh the assets of the brand against the benefits actually offered to the customer in introducing a new technical solution.

With every new BMW offering an enhanced level of driving dynamics, the driver must feel this improvement directly. And the same applies to the improvement of fuel economy – which is precisely why BMW deliberately decided against introducing the first generation of direct gasoline injection, since the fuel savings possible in this case were limited to a narrow engine speed range and therefore failed to fulfil the great demands made of a BMW in its all-round qualities.

The BMW Group’s engine development specialists were however most certainly able to distinguish between the fundamental potential of direct gasoline injection and the initial – but rather limited – implementation of the concept. They therefore decided to develop VALVETRONIC throttle-free load management, a technology able to immediately provide much greater benefits in fuel economy, without losing sight of fundamental developments in the area of direct gasoline injection. And now the result is here: Introducing High Precision Fuel Injection, BMW is presenting the first power unit featuring second-generation direct gasoline injection and thus providing a significant reduction of fuel economy throughout a broad range of engine speed and load and, accordingly, under standard, everyday driving conditions.