BMW - The Most Successful Marque At The International Engine Of The Year Awards

BRACKNELL, UNITED KINGDOM – June 30, 2010: Half of all engine classes at the 2010 "International Engine of the Year Awards" have been won by the BMW Group, highlighting the company’s ability to produce class-leading, efficient, yet high performance petrol and diesel engines.

Since the awards’ inception in 1999, the engines in BMW Group products have been honoured with more than 50 class and overall victories. The winners of the "International Engine of the Year" awards are decided by a global jury made up of 76 engine journalists from 35 countries.

Tim Abbott, Managing Director at BMW (UK) Ltd, said: “Engines are at the very heart of what BMW does. If you don’t have the very best engines, then you can’t offer the extremely attractive products that buyers want, that achieve the vital goals of incredible levels of efficiency delivered without any compromise in performance.

“Only by designing and building such finely engineered engines, combined with our EfficientDynamics technologies, can we succeed in reducing CO2 emissions and saving fuel, yet ensure the car still has the dynamics and performance that brings joy to our customers.

“These awards illustrate that BMW is constantly reducing the impact of its engines on the environment, and the 50 plus awards BMW has won over the years show that we continue to strive to introduce innovation and the latest technology to remain at the very forefront of engine design and production.”

Winner in the 1.4 - 1.8-litre capacity class:
This is the fourth year in a row that the 1.6-litre four-cylinder MINI engine has won, although such is the pace of development at BMW Group that it has already been succeeded by an even more impressive unit. In addition to the turbocharger and direct injection system of this award-winning model, the new engine also has variable valve control for optimum performance. In the MINI Cooper S this unit produces 184hp, yet emissions are only 136g/km and the official combined fuel consumption is 48.7mpg.

Winner in the 1.8 – 2.0-litre capacity class:
This winning 2.0-litre four-cylinder BMW diesel engine features a fully aluminium direct injection power unit with turbochargers and common rail direct injection technology. Its technical prowess results in an output of 204hp and impressed jury members both with its pulling power and its outstanding efficiency. The experts commented that in view of the qualities of this engine, which is offered on 1 Series and the X1 models, it was doubtful whether diesel engines will get any better at all in future.

Winner in the 2.5 – 3.0-litre capacity class:
Such is BMW’s dominance in this category, the 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder engine has replaced its predecessor engine, which was also overall International Engine of the Year in 2007 and 2008, at the top of the class. The new 306hp power unit comes with BMW’s new twin scroll single turbocharger and High Precision Direct Injection and VALVETRONIC systems for the optimum performance. It is featured on cars such as the BMW 135i Coupé and the BMW 535i Saloon. Its diesel equivalent, the new 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder diesel engine with twin turbochargers and common rail direct injection came second in the judging.

Winner in the 3.0 - 4.0-litre capacity class:
For the third year running the 420hp 4.0-litre V8 engine used in high-performance sports cars such as the BMW M3 Coupé, BMW M3 Saloon and BMW M3 Convertible came top of the judges’ polling. The panel noted that in addition to brilliant performance qualities, they were impressed with the efficiency of the high-performance engine, which is combined with an Auto Start/Stop function, brake energy regeneration and other BMW EfficientDynamics measures.