The Age of Data-Driven Mobility 

Changing consumer tastes, supply chain disruption, chip shortages, and tightening emissions standards are just some of the MAJOR challenges automakers face today. Overcoming these challenges will require nothing short of reinvention, something legacy automaker BMW is starting to master. 

After a year of massive upheaval, in January of 2021, 105-year old automaker BMW announced they would be investing “triple-digit million euro amount” annually through 2025 to digitally transform sales and marketing. The end goal is to not only provide customers with a highly personalized and premium shopping experience, but also use he vehicle (and the data it collects) as the ultimate precision marketing tool.

To elaborate, BMW’s Pieter Nota, Board Member – Customer, Brands, Sales, explained in a recent interview, “If customers choose to share their data with us, thanks to digitalised processes, we can get to know their wishes and preferences better than ever. We know which products or services they might be interested in. Having this as a basis saves us time and enables us to provide an individual offering that is customised for them. This won't just be for the vehicle; it includes all relevant services: from financing all the way to a charging package for their electric drive train. And customers will obtain all these things from a single source.

We want to offer them a premium customer experience – from the initial point of contact all the way to using the vehicle.

The next step will be to expand aftersales upgrades for vehicle functions on demand previously only available as optional equipment ex works. This will enable us to offer our customers additional vehicle functions they can use flexibly or just for a limited time, if they choose. This means they can continue personalising their vehicle and adapting it to their mobility needs on an ongoing basis.”

What this means is that, in addition to expanding their e-commerce footprint, they’ll also be launching new in-car features such as driver assistance systems, selected light and sound packages, and cameras that take artful pictures of local scenery. Even the car’s suspension will be customizable. 

As you can imagine, many of the features will require additional fees or subscriptions - something the car itself can promote in response to varying driving conditions and behaviors. For example, “If a customer is driving in sub-zero temperatures, our voice assistant will invite them to try out the steering wheel heating – even though they didn’t order it when they bought the car – free of charge for a trial period. If the customer likes the feature and wants to keep using it, they can pay for the corresponding upgrade – perhaps only during the colder season or for a winter vacation.”

The Workplace Reimagined

Another interesting digital transformation project BMW is working on is the complete redesign of its workplace both figuratively and literally. The project, known as ConnectedWorks, aims to develop new working models and environments that, according to a recent piece in Automotive World, “offer every team a variety of options for combining digital, location-independent formats with flexible, individually configured forms of on-site cooperation.”

With the acknowledgement that designing and building cars is becoming an increasingly complex process, BMW seeks to increase both in-person/onsite and remote collaboration by integrating technology throughout the work environment. In addition, these connected workplaces are designed to be highly configurable so business leaders can plug and play whatever technology best aligns with their needs. For example, the engineering team in Munich could use interactive AR technology to co-design car interiors with the manufacturing team Spartanburg, NC.