BMW owned hybrid Model S

[ggr]

Considering that the BMW Niederlassung Munich is a company-owned dealership, M does stand for Munich where BMW is based, and the test vehicle sticker is identical to what BMW had on the i3 pre-production cars, it is highly likely that this S is owned by BMW and being used for testing...

Actually "B" stands for Bavaria, of which Munich is the main city (I'm not sure "Capitol" would be the correct word). "M" stands for Motor. "W" is for Works. Of course it is in German, really: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.

 

[PaulusdB]

ZBB explained correctly that the M on the license plate indicates München / Munich.
You explain correctly what BMW stands for.
We're all winners, here.

 

[ThosEM]

Photoshop comes to mind... Can the photo be credited or attributed?

 

[djp]

Photoshop comes to mind... Can the photo be credited or attributed?

It's common for manufacturers to buy their competitors' new models for testing and tear down. Many of the Sigs went to R&D labs and are sitting in pieces in a clean white room somewhere.

 

[ggr]

ZBB explained correctly that the M on the license plate indicates München / Munich.
You explain correctly what BMW stands for.
We're all winners, here.

Ah, my iggerance is showing. Sorry.

 

[perdru]

It's common for manufacturers to buy their competitors' new models for testing and tear down.

I am pretty sure Tesla didn't.:smile:

 

[mhpr262]

Actually "B" stands for Bavaria, of which Munich is the main city (I'm not sure "Capitol" would be the correct word).

We Bavarians like to think of Munich as the "secret capital" of Germany. :smile:

 

[huntjo]

We Bavarians like to think of Munich as the "secret capital" of Germany. :smile:

Hehe.
Munich is a great city to visit

 

[Gizmotoy]

wired.com/tesla

I hadn't seen that article. It's a great read. Thanks for leading me to it!

Me neither. Wow, look at those seats! Support and side bolsters! That's depressing.

 

[brianman]

I am pretty sure Tesla didn't.:smile:

I'm fairly confident (and it's been unofficially reported to me personally) that Tesla did teardowns of several vehicles across different categories as part of "normal research". Whether they were new models or not, I have no idea.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

To Bman's point, was told by a local, long-time Mini service shop owner in San Carlos that many early Tesla employees - back when their HQ was still in San Carlos and not Palo Alto - were real car nuts who were into all the mechanical aspects of high-performance cars. He used to run into them often back then apparently. So, I'm sure it's been a two-way street with regard to teardown and reverse-engineering.

 

[ZBB]

Actually "B" stands for Bavaria, of which Munich is the main city (I'm not sure "Capitol" would be the correct word). "M" stands for Motor. "W" is for Works. Of course it is in German, really: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.

ZBB explained correctly that the M on the license plate indicates München / Munich.
You explain correctly what BMW stands for.
We're all winners, here.

Ah, my iggerance is showing. Sorry.

Correct -- I was explaining the M on the license plate, not the M in BMW.

And by the way... I used to work in Munich -- for BMW...

 

[SwedishAdvocate]

…/ Then what BMW is doing with a Tesla is the more interesting part....
Remember that Elon did a thing at the Munich store a couple of months back without any other European appearances at that time. Don't think he flew to Munich just to have a store event... (You figure out the rest of this theory).

An all-electric version of the i8 that will be able to access Tesla’s Supercharger network?

Someone must be lost in translation

Or hoping for a best case scenario. After all, hope springs eternal…

 

[jbruce]

Tesla does own a variety of competitor products and is still buying them today for future development. Benchmarking in any area of design and engineering is a best practice. Its dangerous when companies don't do this as they can form insular design and engineering cultures.

I am pretty sure Tesla didn't.:smile: