BMW GROUP EMPLOYEE DEVELOPS SOLUTION FOR A CHEAP, MOBILE DEVICE FOR PRODUCING DRINKING WATER

Stephan Augustin presented with the internationally renowned National Energy
Globe Award in Brussels for his invention.

Munich/Brussels. On May 26 in Brussels, an international jury presented the
National Energy Globe Award 2007 to BMW Group designer Stephan Augustin for his
invention of the so called Watercone, a device for generating clean drinking
water. Guests at the awards ceremony included Mikhail Gorbachev, José Manuel
Barroso, and Kofi Annan.

The Watercone is a solar-powered cone-shaped desalinator that generates fresh
drinking water from salt or brackish water. With its rigid outer skin, this
plastic cone can be used floating on water or on damp ground. The sunrays
shining on the Watercone cause the water to evaporate under the cone and
condense on the inside of the cone. The droplets of water then accumulate in a
collector trough. The water can then easily be poured out of the opening at the
tip of the Watercone into a container or drunk directly. The water is purified
through the condensation as if it were undergoing a single-stage distillation
process.

++Simple and effective++
Around 1.6 litres of drinking water a day can be obtained by using this
invention. This means that the Watercone could play a major part in solving a
number of problems: UNICEF experts estimate that 5,000 children still die each
day from diarrheal diseases caused by dirty drinking water. Using the
Watercone, people living in coastal regions in Africa, Asia, and South America
can also obtain drinking water from sea water. In addition, this device also
eliminates heavy metals and other pollutants when used near rivers.

The Watercone is made from hard-wearing, unbreakable Bayer Makrolon
polycarbonate with an anti-UV coating and has a guaranteed working life of at
least five years. Stephan Augustin came up with the functional design on the
basis of practical specifications: Tests in the BMW wind tunnel showed that the
Watercone can cope with wind speeds of up to 55 km/h without any problems. This
means that it is largely unaffected by weather.

++Positive results of pilot project in Yemen++
CARE Deutschland carried out a pilot project in the coastal town of Zinjibar in
Yemen, where it generally rains only three times a year. Consequently, the
fishermen have to travel into the interior, sometimes up to 15 km, to find
clean drinking water even though they live right by the sea. CARE handed out
100 Watercones to ten fishermen's families. The water quality produced was
analysed by TÜV in Germany and found to be perfect. The people in the village
went one further: they said the drinking water from the Watercone tasted better
than bottled water.

++A dazzling idea on the beach++
Augustin, an industrial designer, came up with the idea of the Watercone on
holiday on the Canaries. As he looked across the sea, he brooded about how to
convert the rich stocks of sea water in the oceans into a daily ration of
drinking water. "I wanted to use my professional knowledge and my experience to
offer people who suffer from water shortage a humanitarian service in the form
of a practical design", says Augustin. His new partner, the Water Management
Department of Tinox® GmbH in Munich, Germany, will be starting mass production
of the Watercone later in 2008.

++Sustainable growth in the BMW Group++
According to its sustainable development strategy, the BMW Group has also made
the responsible use of water a permanent practice in its worldwide production
network: by consistently using closed water cycles, the amount of water used
per vehicle produced could be cut by 35% over the last five years. Since the
beginning of 2007, the BMW Group's engine plant in Steyr reuses all waste water
from the production process. This world's first waste-water-free production
plant saves around 30 million litres of water a year.

More Information:
Watercone: www.watercone.com
Energy Globe: www.energyglobe.info
Sustainability in the BMW Group: www.bmwgroup.com/sustainability