Shaping the future of the automobile-this can only be achieved by reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

No other car company has reduced emissions as much as the BMW Group.

We even exceeded the ACEA voluntary commitment: Between 1995 and 2008, our EU fleet consumption decreased by 27 percent. And let me add:

We will also be able to meet the new EU emission performance requirements for 2012 and 2015.
Excess penalties will not be an issue for the BMW Group.

The Federal Motor Transport Authority has confirmed our lead in the field of emission reduction:
In Germany, our vehicles' average fuel consumption is 5.9 liters per 100 kilometers, with CO2 emissions of 158 g/km. The average of all new cars registered in 2008 was 165 g/km.

But more than that: BMW's fleet consumption is lower than that of Germany's major volume manufacturer and on par with that of manufacturers whose portfolios mainly comprise small cars.

MINI's average carbon emissions are 138.6 gram.

If we begin to compare horse power to horse power, along with CO2 emission levels, there is not a single engine from our competitors that can beat our engines when it comes to performance and fuel economy.

This is Efficient Dynamics at work.

BMW's new entry-level model was launched a few weeks ago: The BMW 116d is even "greener" than the "World Green Car of the Year", the 118d. This means an average of 4.4 liters per 100 km in the EU test cycle and CO2 emissions of 118 grams.

49 models comply with the EU5 emission requirements. The BMW 330d with the optional BMW BluePerformance technology even meets the EU6 standard taking effect in 2014.

Hybrid technology allows us to tap further efficiency potentials of up to 20 percent.

BMW's first two hybrid vehicles will go into series production this year-the new BMW 7 Series and the X6.

Our long-term goal is sustainable mobility. And project i is our tool to reach this goal.

The MINI E is the first result of project i and our first milestone towards electric mobility. Once again, we are ahead of our competitors. The MINI E is currently being tested by 500 customers in California in everyday city life. Customers in Berlin and Munich are about to join the project.

This field test makes us the car company with the largest fleet of electric cars.

The MINI E is also a technology leader: Fully charged, the 204 hp car can go up to 250 kilometers. And this is a good thing because most drivers do not want to give up driving fun or dynamics-not even for the car of the future.

But euphoria is not called for-not yet anyway. It will take years and years before electric cars will be a common sight on our roads.

Why is that so? First off, electric cars do not meet all the different mobility demands. And secondly, there are many open questions-regarding affordable technology, battery lifecycles, infrastructure, etc. Currently all manufacturers-and our society for that matter-are going through a learning process.

There are still a lot of areas to be defined when it comes to electric mobility. Political decisions have to be taken on the EU level at the least. And Germany should play a driving role in this process.

But the point is that the BMW Group is working hard on developing solutions and that we are investing a lot of money in creating a new era of mobility.

The second specific result of project i will be our Megacity Vehicle.

This vehicle will be the first of a range of near-zero emission vehicles. Customers will have the choice between a fully electric drive and a high-efficiency combustion engine. Large-scale production could start in the first half of the next decade.

With the Megacity Vehicle, we are also pursuing a radical approach toward establishing a truly sustainable value chain-from development to production and sales.

Thanks to these efforts, we are at the forefront of sustainable mobility. So we are in an excellent position to define what premium will be in the future.