STATEMENT BY DR. HELMUT PANKE - OPENING CEREMONY OF THE BMW PLANT LEIPZIG

Leipzig, 13 May 2005

- Check against delivery -

Mr. Chancellor,
Minister President Milbradt,
Minister President Böhmer,
Minister President Stoiber,
Mayor Tiefensee,
Ms. Zaha Hadid, the architect of this central building,
Fellow Associates and Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Board of Management of BMW AG, welcome to the opening of the
new BMW Leipzig Plant. We are very honored to have you here to take part in
today's ceremony with us.

We are especially honored by your presence, Mr. Chancellor. We are privileged
to be able to welcome you to the site of this new BMW Plant today.

We are also very honored to welcome the Minister Presidents of three Federal
States who have joined us today to celebrate the opening of this plant.
Minister President Milbradt, Minister President Böhmer, Minister President
Stoiber - Your presence underscores the importance of the opening of this plant
in Leipzig, here in Saxony, by an automobile manufacturer with roots in
Bavaria. Please also accept our welcome.

Naturally, this day is a special event for the city of Leipzig. As such, I am
also pleased today to welcome you as well, Mayor Tiefensee. Even before we made
our decision to build a plant in Leipzig, working together with you and your
city has been a productive and very constructive experience. Every promise and
every assurance has been kept, from the initial move to today. I'm sure that we
will also continue working together successfully in the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Even as I specially welcome our guests from the political world, please let me
also say to every individual joining us today: We are very happy to have each
and every one of you as our guests to celebrate this day with us.

Today is a special day for the BMW Group. An automobile plant of this size is
something that we last opened a bit over ten years ago in Spartanburg in the
United States. Here in Germany, the last comparable step was the opening of our
plant in Regensburg in 1986. So you can see: Opening a plant like this one
today is something special for our company.

The messages I bring on the occasion of this plant opening are threefold:

1. Opening the BMW Plant in Leipzig is the cornerstone of a corporate policy
oriented
toward the long term.
2. The BMW Group is making a long-term commitment to the location of Leipzig
with
this plant.
3. And, with an extra bit of flexibility, there is much that can be achieved
today, even
when setting up to do business in Germany.

Allow me to head right to my first point:

Successful companies in our industry always act with a long-term perspective.
Naturally they also have to make everyday decisions and medium-range plans. But
in the end, every bit of daily business must be oriented toward a long-term
plan.

The BMW Group started a product and market initiative with the interim goal of
considerably increasing the company's retail by 2008 to 1.4 million
automobiles. We announced this goal in January of 2003.

In order to achieve this goal, the BMW Group has to make timely and long-term
plans. Just to give you an idea of what scale we're thinking on when we do this:

No manufacturer can develop an automobile over night. And no manufacturer
produces automobiles that will be on the market for just a short time. As a
rule, series development of a new vehicle alone takes about 30 months.
Ultimately, an automobile will be for sale on the market for about seven years.
And even after that, people will keep encountering it on the street for years.

The picture is similar at with production structures and processes: Companies
have to plan far in advance where and how many automobiles should be produced.
Naturally it's possible for a company to design its structures to be flexible,
however, you cannot double production capacity from one day to the next.

In this context, keep in mind that it takes just under four years from decision
to completion to build a new plant like this one in Leipzig and that large
investments are linked to it. And keep in mind above all else on what time
scale this kind of plant has been planned. We're talking about decades.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our company made the decision to build this BMW Plant in Leipzig in 2001. Today
we are able to open it.

Our clear commitment is this: The new BMW Plant here in Leipzig is playing an
important role in our long-term plans. And accordingly, we are striving for a
permanent partnership with the City of Leipzig, the State of Saxony, and the
State of Saxony-Anhalt. And, we will continue to be a reliable partner at our
other sites.

As I just said: We do not make decisions of this great importance with only
short-term considerations in mind. Once we've decided on Leipzig, as in this
case, then we decide to do that with a very long-term perspective - and we also
see that as our obligation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The fact that we are opening this plant here today in Leipzig is also a clear
signal that a great deal can be achieved right here in Germany when there is a
great deal of flexibility.

An important component of this flexibility is our "BMW Formula for Work" that
we have developed in conjunction with our associates' representatives. To this
end, both sides needed to be ready to find innovative solutions, for which I
would like to thank the chairman of the Works Council, Mr. Schoch.

Mr. Chancellor, in 2002 at an employee meeting at our plant in Munich, you
said, "Germany must become like BMW."

Thank you once again for this compliment.

In specific terms, I think "Germany must become like BMW" means that Germany
overall needs fewer rules and more flexibility to be a good place to do
business.

Constructive, flexible solutions we've seen here in Leipzig are an indication
that Germany can be a competitive place to do business.

We believe that doing business in Germany offers advantages like the high
density of first-class suppliers, a large and highly qualified workforce, not
to mention the high degree of business experience in our industry. Other
advantages to doing business in Germany include its excellent infrastructure
and high degree of legal security. There are few places to do business in the
world that can offer these structures.

I would also like to say quite pointedly: Germany still has the prerequisites
to be successful in global competition.

We have to work - and work hard - to make sure that it stays this way, to make
sure that this position is further strengthened, since Germany obviously also
has shortcomings as a place to do business. Rules and regulations are too many
and too complex; they inhibit flexibility and reduce speed. All of us - whether
companies, unions, or politicians - should work at this and not merely demand
greater flexibility but also cultivate it.

This means that long term winning performance ultimately pays off. Because even
if responsible companies aren't exclusively taking short-term profits into
account as a part of their long-term strategy, they ultimately still have to
work toward long-term profitability. That is the heart of any company's actions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The success of the BMW Group world wide - in 2004 we sold more than 1.2 million
automobiles, including for the first time more than one million automobiles
under the BMW brand-has resulted in making further investments over the last
few years and in a gradual expansion of our production capacity. Thus, since
2001 - the year we decided to build in Leipzig-we have invested euro 4 billion
into expanding our existing plants in Germany. Mind you: This does not yet
include our investment here in Leipzig.

Our ongoing investments in our plants are very important to me: Even as today's
focus is on this new plant in Leipzig, with an investment of around euro 1.3
billion, we should not overlook the fact that we have invested more than three
times that much into our other sites in Germany. This means that we are keeping
all our plants at the highest state-of-the-art on an ongoing basis.

Yes, the BMW Group has also received funding for this new plant in Leipzig.
This shows that even the European Union understands the importance of balancing
out existing disadvantages in Germany as a part of developing a well-balanced
economic structure in the EU. Seldom has such funding been better invested.
Here in Leipzig a reliable company is investing in a complete production
facility and is giving its commitment to a long-term partnership.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, May 13, is a great day for all of us:

· The BMW Group is opening a new plant and is opening up new opportunities for
future growth.
· Leipzig as well as the entire Leipzig/Halle region are gaining an attractive
employer that is creating 5,500 new jobs on the plant site -
running at full
capacity - and beyond this is also generating higher employment
levels in the
surrounding area.

In conclusion, on behalf of the BMW Group please allow me to express our
gratitude once again to all of you who have made a contribution to all our
success with this plant so far:

· Thanks to the involved agencies from the City of Leipzig, to the Presidency
of the
District Government, and thanks as well to the other involved
offices at the state
and federal level.
· Thanks also to the six surrounding communities who have shown so much
patience during the construction phase and to whom we want to
be a good
neighbor.
· And last but not least, thanks to the architect, the involved builders and
their
employees who have made this plant a reality. Incidentally,
three quarters of these
companies are located right here in this region.

We know that we owe this day to the services of many, many people both inside
and outside our company. To all these people allow me to express our sincere
gratitude. You have all contributed to opening a new chapter in the history of
our company.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention.