BMW Brand Manager About Electric Cars and Autonomous Driving

In an interview for Auto Motor und Sport (read here in German), Senior Vice President of the BMW Brand Hildegard Wortmann talked about the advancements in autonomous driving. She has been in the company since 1998 so we can trust her on the brand’s history and the vision of the future.

When asked about the BMW’s position in this transitioning times, when all the automakers are shifting towards electric mobility, Wortmann said:

For me it is clear that the next ten years will change more than in the 30 years before. But I see change as a great opportunity, because as a company, we are strategically positioned for this. We are leaders in many areas such as electric mobility, networking, mobility services or on the road to autonomous driving, and digitization is only an over-arching catchword, which is already being implemented in all areas at BMW. My job is to “digitize” the BMW brand so that it is still perceived as authentic but also up-to-date and modern.

In the case of combustion engines, since the introduction of Efficient Dynamics in 2007, we have made tremendous progress and are continuing to work intensively. However, future targets can not be achieved without electromobility.

Wortmann wanted to emphasize the need for more women in the auto industry:

Of course I want to promote women, but not in the sense of a quota. It is important for me to encourage young women to continue caring for [car brands]. To this end, we must show them how exciting the tasks are and how BMW can shape the future. And I would like to give the mothers in my team, which sometimes also leadership positions, the greatest possible flexibility in order to be able to arrange the family and the job in a timely manner. I think that there can be nothing worse for a woman than to be a “quota woman”. I myself have a network of business women, but here is not the woman’s being, but the professional exchange in the foreground.

Visit: Auto Motor und Sport