50 Fun Facts About BMW

What does BMW stand for?

The spelling with spaces is grammatically wrong in German; ads have sometimes used the correct 'Motorenwerke'.

In which city is BMW headquartered?

Its 1972 headquarters tower was designed by Karl Schwanzer to resemble the cylinder head of a four-cylinder engine.

What did BMW originally build before motorcycles and cars?

Its first products powered the German air force; the BMW IIIa straight-six of 1917 was designed by Max Friz.

Which engine firm, founded in 1913, was the first to change its name to BMW, in 1917?

In 1922 its name and engine assets passed to the aircraft maker Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which became today's BMW AG.

What was BMW's first motorcycle, introduced in 1923?

Its boxer twin, with a cylinder poking out into the airflow on each side, is still the layout of the R Series today.

BMW became a car maker in 1928 by acquiring an Eisenach factory that built which British car under licence?

Sold as the Dixi, it was rebadged as the BMW 3/15, the first car to wear the BMW name.

What was the first car sold under the BMW name?

It was essentially a rebadged Dixi; the 328 sports car followed in 1936 and won its class at the 1938 Mille Miglia.

According to a persistent myth, what does the BMW roundel depict?

The blue and white quarters actually echo the Bavarian flag; the myth comes from a 1929 ad, twelve years after the logo appeared.

Why does the BMW logo not use the lozenge pattern of the Bavarian flag?

The black ring around the roundel was inherited from Rapp Motorenwerke's own logo, which showed a horse's head.

How many forced labourers did BMW use building the 801 aircraft engine during the Second World War?

They were mainly prisoners from concentration camps such as Dachau; car production stopped entirely during the war.

How did BMW survive after World War II, when banned from producing vehicles or aircraft?

Motorcycle production restarted in 1948 and cars in 1952 with the 501 luxury saloon.

Which Italian-designed microcar did BMW build under licence from 1955?

Its egg shape and bubble windows earned it the 'bubble car' nickname; the name means 'little Iso' after the firm that designed it.

Which rival nearly took over BMW in 1959?

Slow luxury-car sales and thin microcar margins had left the company in serious trouble.

Which family's 1959 investment saved BMW from being swallowed by its Stuttgart rival?

Herbert and Harald Quandt used a fortune their father Gunther had built arming the Wehrmacht with forced labour; the family remains the largest shareholder.

How many BMW 507 roadsters were built between 1956 and 1959, causing heavy losses?

Owners included Elvis Presley, who later gave one to Ursula Andress, and Fred Astaire.

Which 1962 range of compact sedans began BMW's reputation for sporty cars?

The success of the small 700 had funded it; the 5 Series followed in 1972 and the 3 Series in 1975.

In which year was the BMW 3 Series introduced?

It is BMW's best-seller, around 30% of brand sales, and made Car and Driver's 10Best list 22 times running.

What was the first road car released by BMW's M division, in 1978?

The mid-engined supercar was meant to be built by Lamborghini until the deal collapsed; the M5 came in 1984 and the M3 in 1986.

Which Italian company was first contracted to build the BMW M1 before BMW took over?

It was BMW's first mass-produced mid-engined car; the second was the i8 plug-in hybrid.

In which model did BMW introduce its first V12 engine in 1986?

A 2022 7 Series special edition called 'The Final V12' was the last BMW series-production car with the engine.

Which 1999 model was BMW's first SUV?

It is built at Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW's highest-output plant at about 1,500 vehicles a day.

Which British carmaker did BMW buy in 1994, at great cost, before selling most of it off in 2000?

BMW kept only the Mini brand and launched the modern Mini in 2001 from the old Morris plant at Cowley, Oxford.

From which company did BMW acquire the rights to the Rolls-Royce car brand in 1998?

BMW's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has built cars at Goodwood in West Sussex since 2003.

Where does BMW build Rolls-Royce cars?

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has been a wholly owned BMW subsidiary since 2003, unrelated to the pre-2003 firm beyond some engines.

What was BMW's first mass-production electric car, released in 2013?

Back in 1968-72 BMW had built two battery-electric 1602 saloons for the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Which 2014 model was BMW's first front-wheel-drive car?

It was a break with decades of rear-wheel-drive tradition, and it was an MPV.

What is BMW's slogan in the United States and Britain?

BMW North America coined it in 1974; elsewhere the company uses 'Freude am Fahren', 'Sheer Driving Pleasure', standardised in 1972.

What is the English translation of BMW's worldwide slogan 'Freude am Fahren'?

It first appeared in 1965 as 'Aus Freude am Fahren'; a 2010 'Joy' campaign aimed at women was dropped by 2012.

What is BMW's headquarters tower designed to resemble?

Its four cylinders hang from a central support tower rather than standing on the ground; it was listed as a historic building in 1999.

Which sculptor painted the first BMW Art Car, a 3.0 CSL raced at Le Mans in 1975?

Warhol, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Jenny Holzer and Frank Stella followed; there have been 19 Art Cars so far.

Which driver won the 1983 Formula One world championship in a BMW-powered Brabham?

BMW supplied Brabham from 1982 to 1987; the engines lived on under the Megatron badge with Arrows.

Which driver scored the BMW Sauber team's only Formula One win, at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix?

BMW had bought Sauber outright in 2005 after its Williams partnership soured; the project ended in 2009.

BMW designed and built the V12 engine for which legendary 1990s supercar?

BMW also co-developed the 2018 Z4 platform with Toyota, which used it for the Supra.

BMW agreed in 2013 to share a sports-car platform with which Japanese carmaker, yielding the Z4 and Supra?

The deal also covered fuel cells and lithium-air battery research.

Which US state is home to BMW's Spartanburg plant, its highest-output factory?

It builds the X3 through X7 and the XM; BMW has manufactured in the US since 1994 and sold cars there since 1956.

Which was the first wholly owned BMW subsidiary outside Germany, established in the 1970s?

Cars have been assembled at Rosslyn near Pretoria since 1968, and unlike Ford and GM, BMW never left during apartheid.

Where has BMW built all its motorcycles since 1969?

The Berlin factory had earlier made aircraft engines for Siemens.

What is BMW's early-1990s front suspension design that reduces dive under braking called?

The Duolever, a Hossack-type fork, arrived on the K1200S in 2004, whose engine drew on BMW's Williams F1 work.

Which Chinese partner did BMW form its Shenyang joint venture with in 2004?

In 2022 BMW raised its stake from 50% to 75%, one of the first foreign carmakers to hold a Chinese majority.

Which car-sharing joint venture did BMW run with Sixt in Europe from 2011 to 2019?

ReachNow launched in Seattle in 2016 and the Access by BMW subscription pilot in Nashville in 2018.

Which company bought Husqvarna Motorcycles from BMW in January 2013?

Stephan Pierer's firm owns 51% of KTM and 100% of Husqvarna.

Who succeeded Oliver Zipse as chairman of the board of management of BMW AG in May 2026?

Zipse had replaced Harald Kruger in August 2019; Brownridge became CEO of Rolls-Royce in December 2023.

How many vehicles did BMW produce in 2023, making it the world's ninth-largest producer?

It ranked sixth by revenue and 46th in the Forbes Global 2000 that year.

Which 1936-40 BMW sports car won its class at the 1938 Mille Miglia and was a Car of the Century finalist?

It also won its class at the RAC Tourist Trophy and the Alpine Rally that year.

What is the shape of the roof of the BMW Museum?

The cauldron-shaped building, also by Karl Schwanzer, opened in 1972; the BMW Welt showroom by Coop Himmelb(l)au followed in 2007.

BMW traces its origins to which aircraft-engine firm founded in Bavaria in 1910?

It became Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in 1916 and took the BMW name in 1922 along with Rapp's engine assets.

Which engineer developed the BMW IIIa straight-six aircraft engine in 1917?

After the war the company diversified into motorcycle engines, farm equipment, household items and even railway brakes.

Which 1995 model was BMW's first mass-production two-seat roadster?

The 1989 Z1 had marked BMW's return to two-seaters, but it was built in far smaller numbers.

What image sat at the centre of the Rapp Motorenwerke logo from which the BMW roundel evolved?

BMW kept Rapp's black ring but filled the middle with the blue-and-white quarters of Bavaria; the propeller story came 12 years later.

BMW's first successful motorcycle in 1923 introduced which distinctive engine layout?

Each cylinder projects into the airflow from either side of the machine, and every BMW twin since has kept the layout.