Redefining premium: BMW accelerates digitalization in China

German auto giant BMW is making solid steps forward in digitalization with a series of technologies and innovations launched, and senior executives at the automaker have said China is the driving force behind BMW's transformation.

"Digitalization will redefine premium," said Jochen Goller, president and CEO of BMW Group Region China. "Customer expectations toward a premium brand like BMW is changing. Before, our products were defined by design, performance, cornering speed; today, this is still important, but connectivity is playing a much bigger role. This will have a profound impact on the whole company."

The CEO made the remarks at the 2020 BMW China news conference on digitalization, which took place on Monday online.

"The Chinese market is a leading market for digital development,"Goller said.

He added that BMW has established its largest research and development system outside Germany in China, with a total of more than 1,100 research staff members, out of which 400 are software developers.

The auto giant has also set up specialized design and development teams for user interface and user experience in China, to design and verify the human-machine interaction modes suitable for Chinese customers, in a bid to meet Chinese customers' evolving needs.

Digitalization is an integral part of BMW's R&D, production, in-car digital experience and its customers' journeys, according to Goller."Our goal is to create an online-to-offline premium brand experience that integrates digitalization both inside and outside the car. And we are in the fast lane in China."

BMW is conducting remote software upgrades for 500,000 BMW cars all over the world equipped with the BMW iDrive 7.0 system. Among them, more than 200,000 vehicles are in China, including multiple BMW models such as the all-new 8 Series and 3 Series.

"BMW is one of the few companies that have launched such a large-scale OTA (over-the-air) upgrade like this," said Christian Salzmann, senior vice-president of electronic and electrical products and autonomous driving at BMW China.

"BMWs with these new systems (such as the BMW iDrive 7.0 and the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant) can be updated remotely to provide customers with the latest features and functions to keep their BMWs 'fresh'."

The remote software upgrade covers three main areas, which are upgrading vehicle safety software, offering new in-car digital services and optimizing intelligent driving assistance systems.

According to the automaker, customers can upgrade their BMWs in the same way they upgrade their smartphones. When a latest version of vehicle-mounted software is available, the BMW owners will receive upgrading notifications via their cars and the My BMW App. Software installation can be finished in 20 minutes.

The My BMW App is a new application launched by the automaker last month in China, which is committed to creating diversified channels for users to interact with the BMW brand.

"This new app is highly user-friendly and powerful in terms of function. For instance, there is one feature where you can book services for your car, manage your payments and actually meet up with BMW fans and friends," Goller said.

The app is not only aimed at BMW owners, but also aims to attract BMW fans by offering them a 24/7 digital experience that combines online car selection, online services and social communication.

According to the automaker, the My BMW App helps BMW enhance its real-time interaction with young-generation customers, especially in the Chinese market, and further improve the BMW brand's appeal.

Besides online, BMW views its more than 600 dealerships and after-sales service outlets nationwide as the core link connecting customers' online and offline experience.

To help reduce costs and increase efficiency for its dealers and optimize customers' experience, BMW will launch SPARK, a brand-new dealership operation system, at the end of October, according to the auto giant.

As it sees dealers as an integral part of its digitalization transformation, BMW designed SPARK to integrate the information generated in different channels, enable dealers to do more regular business online and generate visual business reports to help dealers optimize operations.

SPARK can also allow dealers to have online and instant communication with customers, to bring customers a one-on-one exclusive service experience and improve service efficiency and quality.

As of now, BMW has sold more than 4.7 million vehicles in China and had many millions of fans in the country, according to the automaker.

To provide targeted and personalized services to BMW owners and fans in China, the world's largest automobile market, the automaker established a unified customer data platform, offering each user an exclusive customer ID.

"This (the customer ID) means each customer and potential customers can be recognized by BMW as an individual person with specific needs. And data security and protection are taken into account at every step," Goller said.

The customer data platform is developed by Lingyue Digital Information Technology, a digital arm with the BMW Group, which was founded in 2019 in China. Lingyue has more than 100 employees.

Looking ahead, BMW is poised to keep on moving ahead in the fast lane of digitalization transformation.

On Oct 1, the automaker established a new global department entitled "Digital Car", which aims to further integrate R&D in terms of autonomous driving, driving assistance, intelligent connectivity and digital services.