BMW Telematics Offensive: Networking of Individual Mobility Through Partnership with Vodafone Passo

       -- Strategic Cooperation Re-oriented Through Long-Term Agreement

    MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 13 The BMW Group has renewed its
strategic partnership with Vodafone Passo in the field of telematics services.
With its updated BMW ASSIST, BMW offers customers a unique service which, as a
special technological innovation, allows the desired navigation data to be
transmitted right into a moving car from external sources.  The contract with
Vodafone, formerly Mannesmann, on the development of BMW ASSIST was signed as
early as July 1999.  The BMW Group and Vodafone Passo have now adapted the
contract to the current service requirements and strategic orientation of BMW
which, with the new BMW 7 Series, is aimed at being the world's first
manufacturer to offer an Internet portal in an automobile.

    Partnership of Technology Leaders
    The renewed partnership of two global players in the automotive industry
and New Economy offers the customer major advantages in the automotive service
sector.  The technological know-how and global network makes Vodafone Passo
the ideal partner to keep the BMW Group in the top position in the area of
navigation, information and online services and to upgrade these services over
the long term.  Today, Vodafone with its mobile telephony networks in
26 countries is the largest cellular operator worldwide and serves 78.7
million customers around the globe.  Vodafone's global network allows BMW,
with the assistance of the navigation system and car phone, to provide
customers in many countries with its mobile multi-band services.
    Just as the cooperation with Vodafone Passo today forms the basis for the
mobile telematics service BMW ASSIST, Vodafone is the BMW Group's strategic
partner as a portal operator when it comes to the replacement of the current
BMW 7 Series as the first Internet-capable production car: "As we started in
the 1990s to network individual computers, so it is now a logical step to
network automobiles to form a comprehensive mobile information network" says
Dr. Burkhard Goeschel, member of the Board of Management for development and
purchasing of the BMW Group.

    From BMW ASSIST to the Mobile Internet Portal
    In collaboration with Vodafone Passo, the BMW Group has updated the BMW
ASSIST telematics service and at the same time upgraded the product range.
Automatic emergency calls in serious accidents, roadside assistance, real-time
traffic information as well as mobility-related information services with more
than 260,000 points of interest are now bundled in a clear and defined manner.
In Germany BMW with its BMW ASSIST even today offers its customers data
backloading, a process where desired navigation data, such as from petrol
stations, hotels or venues, can be transmitted from an external BMW data
centre into the navigation system of a moving car.  With BMW ASSIST, BMW is
also offered a chance for entirely new and regular customer contacts, which
opens up new avenues in customer relations management.
    With BMW ASSIST, the networking of individual mobility has already got
under way, but opens up completely new dimensions with the world's first
Internet-capable production car, the new BMW 7 Series.  Karl-Heinz Kalbfell,
Senior Vice President Group Marketing, is convinced that telematics and online
services will in future take on the role of a virtual assistant that will
relieve driving effort in any situation and will increasingly allow the driver
to focus on what it is all about -- the pleasure of motoring.
    Be it the BMW ASSIST telematics service or the automotive Internet
portal -- the keyword "Connected Drive" -- combines all BMW innovations into a
comprehensive driver assist concept.  "Connected Drive" in this context stands
for intelligent communication in the driver, vehicle and environment triangle.
The systems based on this principle provide the driver with information in
situations where he is unable to perceive such information or not reliably
enough.  Thus, the electronic assistants relieve driving effort and thereby
contribute to safer, more efficient and more comfortable motoring.