圖文閱讀:汽車王國之BMW
科技的前進創新的傳統BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), German manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and aircraft engines. Based in Munich, Germany, the company is the leading auto exporter in Europe. The English translation of the company's name is Bavarian Motor Works.
寶馬汽車，德國汽車、摩托車、飛機引擎製造商. 總部設在德國慕尼黑,是歐洲的主要汽車出口商.公司名稱翻譯爲英文是Bavarian Motor Works.
The company traces its origins to 1913, when a Bavarian named Karl Rapp began an aircraft-engine shop in Munich named Rapp Motoren Werke. In 1917 Rapp resigned and the company, led by Austrian engineer Franz-Josef Popp, changed its name to Bayerische Motoren Werke. That same year chief engineer Max Friz designed the company's first aircraft engine, the six-cylinder Type IIIa, which created strong demand for BMW engines. When the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited German companies from producing aircraft and aircraft engines, BMW switched to making air brakes for railway cars. In 1923 Friz developed the company's first motorcycle, the R32, a model that held world speed records for motorcycles during most of the 1930s.
公司的起源追溯到1913年,一個名叫卡爾的巴伐利亞人在慕尼黑開了一家飛機發動機商店叫Rapp Motoren Werke. 1917年Rapp辭職，公司由奧地利工程師弗朗茨改名爲BMW. 同年,該公司首席工程師馬克思設計了公司第一個飛機發動機、6缸IIIa型,開創了寶馬引擎市場需求. 1919年凡爾賽條約禁止德國公司生產飛機和飛機發動機,寶馬改爲製造鐵路車的氣閘. 1923年製造了公司的第一輛機車----R32：在二十世紀三十年代大部分時間內成爲世界速度記錄機.
In 1928 the company entered the automobile business by acquiring Fahrzeugwerke Eisenach (Eisenach Vehicle Factory), a maker of small cars based in Eisenach, Germany. In the 1930s BMW began producing a line of larger touring cars and sports cars, introducing its highly successful model-the 328 sports car-in 1936.
公司於1928年進入汽車行業，收購了愛森納赫(愛森納赫汽車廠)，一個設在德國愛森納赫的小型汽車廠.二十世紀三十年代寶馬開始生產一系列的轎車和賽車。1936年成功的引進其模型---328賽車.
After World War II ended in 1945, Allied forces dismantled the company's main factories. BMW made kitchen and garden equipment before introducing a new, inexpensive motorcycle to the German market in 1948. The company's return to auto production in the 1950s resulted in poor sales. In the 1960s the company turned its fortunes around by focusing on sports sedans and compact touring cars, and it began to compete with Mercedes-Benz in the luxury-car markets of Europe and the United States. BMW's U.S. sales peaked in 1986 but then dropped steeply, partly due to competition from two new luxury cars-Lexus, made by Toyota Motor Corporation, and Infiniti, made by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. The 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall led to a boom in car sales in Europe, and in 1992 BMW outsold Mercedes-Benz in Europe for the first time.
第二世界大戰結束後1945年,盟軍解散公司的主要工廠. 寶馬在1948年德國市場引進了一臺便宜的機車之前是製造廚房和花園設備。50年代公司因爲銷售業績太差重新回到汽車行業. 60年代寶馬BMW振興工業行動終於又泛起一片曙光，公司集中製造賽車和豪華轎車，在歐洲和美國豪華車市場上可以同奔馳相抗衡. 1986年寶馬在美國的銷售達到高峯但之後又急劇下降，部分原因是由於豪華轎車市場兩個新的競爭對手：豐田汽車公司和Infiniti。1989年柏林牆倒塌,帶來了歐洲汽車市場的繁榮,在1992年寶馬首次在歐洲市場銷售額超過了奔馳.
寶馬3系列 有史以來最成功的運動型轎車
In 1990 BMW formed a joint venture with the British aerospace company Rolls-Royce PLC to produce aircraft engines for business jets. In 1992 BMW broke ground for a major automobile plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, its first automobile plant in the United States. In 1994 BMW acquired 80 percent of the Rover Group-a British manufacturer of small cars, luxury cars, and Land Rover sport-utility vehicles-from British Aerospace PLC. The $1.2 billion acquisition brought the company into new markets.
1990年寶馬和英國航空航天公司---勞斯萊斯飛機引擎製造商合資製造航天引擎. 1992年BMW在美國的卡羅萊納州南部的斯帕坦堡開設了一家主要的汽車廠，這是美國的第一汽車廠. 1994年寶馬獲得英國航空航天公司銷售的英國小型車、豪華轎車、越野賽車製造商80%的市場額，. 12億美金的收入爲公司帶來了新的市場.
車標故事：
寶“寶馬”曾譯爲巴依爾。由於寶馬公司是以生產航空發動機開始創業的，所以商標中的藍色爲天空，白色爲螺旋槳，這是寶馬車標的一大特點。寶馬車標採用了內外雙圓圈的圖形，並在雙圈圓環的上方標有BMW字樣的商標。整個商標就像藍天、白雲和運轉不停的螺旋槳，喻示寶馬公司的淵源和悠久的歷史，既象徵該公司過去在航空發動機技術方面的領先地位，又象徵公司的一貫宗旨和目標。
和奔馳汽車公司一樣,寶馬汽車公司以汽 車的高質量、高性能和高技術爲追求目標,汽車產量不高,但在世界汽車界和用戶中享有和奔馳汽車幾乎同等的聲譽。寶馬汽車加速性能和高速性能在世界汽車界數一數二,因而各國警方的警車首選 的就是寶馬汽車。寶馬的摩托車在國際市場上最爲昂貴,甚至超過了豪華汽車,售價高達3萬美元左右。由於寶馬產品以賽車風格設計,因而在世界賽車活動中寶馬汽車經常大出風頭。
