BMW revealed the size and make up of the fleet of cars it will provide as the Official Automotive Partner to the London 2012 Olympics. Some 3,200 vehicles will make up the entire fleet, the varied requirements for the event meaning everything from MINIs to X5s will ferry athletes, media, officials and support staff around the numerous venues. As part of the push towards a more sustainable games the fleet was required to have an average emissions figure of 120g/km and 62.4mpg.
Despite the varying requirements (the 10 X5s on fleet for example are needed to tow horsebox ambulances and provide support at equestrian event and the 17 X3s will tow boats at sailing and rowing events), BMW's fleet delivers an average CO
2 figure of 116g/km and 64.5mpg. Those are remarkable figures given the number and scope of vehicles required, the 116g/km rating around 12g/km lower than the average car in the supermini segment in the UK.
Helping achieve that is a number of zero emissions cars, BMW having 200 electric vehicles. The main EV is BMW's 1 Series Active E, 160 of which will be used for athlete transportation and broadcasters within the Olympic park. They'll be joined by 40 MINI Es. BMW, with EDF and GE, has installed 120 charge points, which can fully charge the cars in four hours.
The bulk of the fleet provision will be BMW's 320d EfficientDynamics, it producing just 109g/km of CO
2 and returning 68.9mpg on the official combined cycle. Joining them will be 20 examples of the 5 Series ActiveHybrid, which return 44.1mpg and emit 149g/km. It'll be coming to the UK officially later in the year, and it's the first BMW hybrid to do so. Two hundred MINIs and over 700 520d EfficientDynamics cars will also be used in and around all the venues, while Citroen will plug the MPV gap in BMW's range by providing 800 people carriers.
BMW isn't saying how much it's all costing, but a spreadsheet somewhere must make the huge exposure it'll gain worth the expense. At the end of the games the fleet will be carefully managed and added to BMW's nearly new stock - so later this year you could buy a car within which an Olympic gold medallist has travelled.
Kyle Fortune - 27 Apr 2012
