Business Channel 2007-09-14&09-16, 专访宝马北美区CEO

Scripts:
The race for the high-end consumer is on. BMW is putting in in the high gear on the green. CNBC auto 1 reporter Phil LeBeau has this tough assignment once again this morning. Ah, I didn't even think about that, Dr. Phil, go forward, Dr. Phil.

Joe, anytime you can spend the morning at Cog Hill, watch the sun rise like this, pretty good gey. I'm here with Tom Purves, the president of BWM North America the man who is in charge of BMW in North America. We are gonna talk about the BMW championship in a little bit and the reason that we are here. But first, I wanna ask you about auto sales, August numbers are gonna be reported later today, and you have the first numbers from BMW, and you had a blockbuster month. Tell me about that.

Yes we did,I mean we had over 26,000 BMWs sold and this is about 18% better than last year which for us is preciously great, we are delighted. And we had extremely good sales of our Mini brand as well, over 4000 vehicles so it's been a record August for us.

So you were looking at sales being up roughly 20% year over year, year to date coming in to August you're up roughly 8 %, you've heard the same commentary out there that consumers are pulling back, people are not going out and buying new cars and trucks. Yet you are not seeing that, why?

Well, first of all, I think anybody who has got great new products is doing well in what is essentially 2 a flat market. we are seeing some delinquencies with our financial service's company, ah, slightly up on last year. But I really do believe that the package that we are offering the consumers the moment is remarkable 3. We are one of the, we are the only brand that has full maintenance included in the price of the car. And I think we are the smart buy at the moment.

You're up, Mercedes is up, Lexus is up, are the luxury brands ,are you insulated from what you are seeing in the economy right now in terms of people saying it is not the right time to buy a new model?

Classically, the luxury brands have some insulation 4 and you see a turndown in the higher volume products before you do in the luxury market. so I've, some extent, been expecting to see a reduction in demand and I am delighted in the fact that we are not seeing it at BMW at least not as August 2007.

And you told me that back in March of last year when you started to see the data about housing turning down you expected ultimately to see a slowdown,and yet we are only seeing that with mass brands at this point.

Yes,and classically, property foretells 5 the story for the car business. On the other hand, what we are seeing with property is that it is in sectors 6, in locations, is not totally all across the markets, and we have some very very strong markets where we are just seeing business continue.

I know Joe Kearney has a question for you,Tom. Joe, go ahead.

I do, and it's a long term question, Phil and Mr. Purves you think BMW, you think performance. you think you are gonna go here to here with some power and with some speed. Long term you think carbon footprints, you think Prius, you think hybrid 7. Does BMW have to reposition itself with the, with... since that riding is on the loaf and it's not going to be all about performance down the road.

No, I don't believe so, I mean we've taken this whole business of sustainability very seriously for many many years now. No a car company has done more to improve the fuel efficiency of its product range of last ten years, and BMW in fact, we just won an accolade 8 last week on that very subject. One of the reason we had such a good Auguest we had a great new BMW 3 series with a 2.8 litre, 3 and half litre engines, brand-new engines. They not only produce more power but they are actually more fuel- efficient at the same time. So I believe that together with work we are doing to introduce diesels 9 into the United States next year. We have hybrid technology coming along and here at Cog Hill we have four of our hydrogen part 7 series which are really the cars of the future. We are in pretty good shape. So long as we deliver to the customer better fuel- efficiency as well as better performance , and BMW is a clever buy.

Alright, um, If you heard where the Nicholson's playing next week?

No, You knew the question was coming. I knew the question was coming I'm sure Phil will do the right thing and when I speak to the commissioner 10 later today. I'm sure I am gonna hear some good news. (Tom Purves, the...) Sounds like he's gonna play.

I hope so.

The president of BWM North America Tom, thank you very much for joining us today on Squawk Box. BMW championship kicks off, tees off I should say Thursday. They've already got some good news with auto sales for August and certainly they're gonna enjoy that here. Guys?Back to you.

All right.

Notes:
tee off: to get started
on the loaf: in a situation of straying or wabbling