BMW Welt Expands Delivery Experience

MUNICH – There is nothing frivolous about the way BMW AG does business. But BMW Welt comes close.

Welt, which means “world” in English, is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to BMW culture. Visitors here can ogle displays featuring all BMW products, including motorcycles, or explore other attractions such as gift shops, a children’s edutainment area, meeting facilities and several restaurants.

BMW expects the Welt and its surrounding attractions to draw some 850,000 visitors annually.

The enterprise is not a “strategic investment,” admits Roman Diehl, BMW Welt’s marketing chief. “There’s no positive business case.”

It’s all about “the strengthening of the brand,” Diehl says during a media tour.

“Our vision was (for guests) to experience the whole world of BMW with all the senses. Our vision, I think, came true.”

BMW Welt certainly can make dreams come true, because customers can take delivery of their vehicles here, as if on stage. Other visitors can watch BMW staffers hand over the keys on a centrally located showroom floor outfitted with 20 turntables and 10 panoramic platforms.

“It’s a very emotional moment when a car and customer comes together,” Diehl says, noting that all buyers are treated the same, whether they purchase a high-end 7-Series or an entry-level 1-Series.

BMW Welt offers European vehicle delivery, factory tours.

And for the first time, European customers have the same opportunity as their U.S. counterparts. Until now, BMW could not accommodate customers from both continents, so it made a strategic decision to exclude Europeans because, well, they already were on this side of the Atlantic.

Customers wishing to take delivery at the Welt can pre-order their vehicles at their local dealership and arrange for pickup in Germany, BMW says. The auto maker also helps customers make travel and tour arrangements if they so desire.

“We’ll take care of booking their hotel and other needs,” Diehl says.

Customers receive a package with detailed information about their pickup activities 21 days before the scheduled arrival of their vehicle at the Welt. Once these customers arrive, they are given access to a private lounge.

They receive information about the their vehicles, and a BMW staff member provides a walk-around of the cars.

A driving simulator capable of mimicking any combination of specifications is available for those who wish to take virtual test drives before getting behind the wheel of the real thing.

From start to finish, the process to hand over a new car takes about 40 minutes, BMW says.

The cost to pick up a new vehicle from the Welt is €457 ($674). However, customers are spared normal dealership delivery charges.

Additionally, U.S. customers can drive their cars around Europe and bring them back to the Welt for shipping.

VIP guests, such as actors and famous athletes, are guaranteed privacy in an exclusive section of the Welt, BMW says.

“Understand, we’re a platform for our dealers,” Diehl says. “We offer dealers a wide range of possibilities to make their customers happy.”

Products built at BMW’s Spartanburg, NC, plant are not eligible for pickup at the Welt, BMW says.

The auto maker expects 45,000 customers annually to take advantage of the new delivery program.

However, BMW officials stress the Welt is more than a delivery facility. The Welt “experience,” they say, extends beyond its walls to tours of the auto maker’s nearby Munich assembly plant and the BMW museum, which currently is undergoing renovation and slated to open next spring.

The plant produces 1,400 engines and more than 800 3-Series cars each day.

Opened in 1950, the historic plant employs some 9,000 workers from more than 50 countries. It also features about 600 robots.

The plant tour boasts up-close views of the entire manufacturing and assembly processes, including tool making, press shop, body shop, paint shop and seat production.

Admission to the Welt is free. The structure’s modern styling sprang from the imagination of Wolf D. Prix, co-founder of the famed German architect firm COOP HIMMELB(L)AU.

“While the first drafts still incorporated a large number of pillars and supports, we reduced this number consistently in the course of time to come closer to the philosophy of a cloud hovering in space,” Prix says.

“As it is now, the particular shape and design of the roof emphasizes and accentuates the free-hovering, flying character of the building.”

The 7-story, 807,000-sq.-ft. (74,973-sq.-m) Welt houses 1,154 rooms, boasts 18 elevators and took some 9,000 tons (9,921 t) of reinforced steel and 1.9 million cu.-ft. (55,000 cu.-m) of concrete to construct.

The site, itself, is a former Munich airstrip, a nod to BMW’s origins as a manufacturer of aircraft engines. Indeed, the massive structure is able to contain an Airbus A380 jumbo jet.

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