NEW YORK CITY MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES USE OF MINI E ELECTRIC CARS PROVIDED BY BMW GROUP TO CITY OF NEW YORK

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Announces Use of MINI E Electric Cars
provided by BMW Group to City of New York in State of the City Speech

The MINI E is a zero-emissions fully electric car

New York, NY - January 15, 2009... New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
today announced in his State-of-the-City speech that BMW Group will loan a
fleet of 10 MINI E electric zero-emissions cars to the City of New York. These
vehicles will be used in its Street Condition Observation Unit, known as SCOUT,
and will be among the 500 MINI Es the BMW Group is producing as part of a
one-year pilot field study to determine the viability of electric vehicles in
real life use. The MINI Es will be used by SCOUT inspectors who drive New York
City's streets in search of street conditions, such as potholes and graffiti.
The vehicles are scheduled to begin arriving in April.

The MINI E is the first product of BMW's Project i, a program designed to
research and develop transportation strategies and new types of vehicles
specifically to meet the needs of the world's growing mega-cities, of which New
York is one.

"We are delighted to work with New York City in developing this new form of
sustainable transportation," said Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA.
"Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC initiative has demonstrated a keen understanding of
the importance of sustainability and we fully share the same vision and
enthusiasm for developing new ideas, technologies and forms of transportation
to make it a reality. This MINI E zero-emission vehicle is only our company's
first step."

The MINI E can travel more than 150 miles on a single charge and provides the
agility and handling of a MINI Cooper. It is powered by a 150 kilowatt electric
motor with the equivalent of 201 hp. The energy supply comes from a
high-performance rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The vehicle, which debuted
at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in
8.5 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 95 mph. MINI will
install a special wall box into each MINI E customer's garage that can fully
recharge a completely drained battery in just two-and-a-half hours.

The 500 MINI Es will be deployed in New York and New Jersey and Los Angeles
metropolitan areas with additional vehicles being tested in Berlin, Germany and
London, England. Of the 500 U.S. vehicles, 450 will be leased to customers that
applied online at MINIUSA.com to be part of the one-year field study. The
others will be dedicated to full-time extensive and intense daily use in select
fleets, such as the NYC SCOUT fleet. Those selected will be asked to provide
ongoing real world use feedback to BMW on their experience with the
zero-emission electric cars. More than twice the number of people applied as
there are cars available in the U.S.

BMW has also arranged to provide MINI Es to the city of Los Angeles to test the
MINI E in conditions different from those in New York City.

In New York City, the MINI Es will serve as SCOUT vehicles and be deployed
across the five boroughs beginning this spring for one year. The vehicle
operators help identify problems on New York City streets and ascertain whether
complaints logged into the City's 311 phone system are being adequately
addressed. SCOUT vehicles log nearly 100 miles per day.

MINI in the US
MINI is an independent brand of the BMW Group. In the United States, MINI USA
operates as a business unit of BMW of North America, LLC which has been present
in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began
distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to
include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand
of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce
brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, an industrial design firm in California; a
technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the
country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group's
global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all
X5 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. The BMW Group sales
organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger
car centers, 335 BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 142 BMW motorcycle
retailers, 83 MINI passenger car dealers, and 30 Rolls-Royce Motor Car
dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group's sales headquarters for North,
Central and South America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet
at:

www.bmwgroupna.com
www.bmwusa.com
www.bmwmotorcycles.com
www.miniusa.com
www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com

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Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available
to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address:
www.press.bmwgroup.com. Broadcast quality video footage is available via The
NewsMarket at www.thenewsmarket.com.

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Contact:
Nathalie Bauters
MINI Communications Manager
201-930-3166
nathalie.bauters@miniusa.com