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BMW introducing i8 to US with Hello Future Olympics ad

It's not all unfinished hotel rooms and unconventional toilet situations at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. During the broadcast of the opening ceremony tonight, BMW is going to introduce the American TV audience to its plug-in i brand of vehicles. Of course, since we have things like Twitter and YouTube (which the Russian hosts might not be too happy about), you can already see the first spot below. BMW is going all-in on its Olympics ads, saying the campaign is the company's "largest media investment of the year." The first ad, called Hello Future, sets the words of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke to an array of futuristic cityscape visuals before flashing the i8 onto the screen. Two other spots – called SHHH and Sightings – will also debut during the Games. Those have not yet been placed online, but BMW says that Sightings is about people "trying to describe something they have never seen before; something remarkable and other-worldly" (i.e., the plug-in i8). SHHH, on the other hand, is a short romance, about a "boy who sneaks out in his dad's quiet and all-electric BMW i3 as he tries to impress his dream-girl with the ultimate joyride. In the end, the joyride helps him win the girl." There's a twist, of course, which you can read about in the press release below or just wait until it appears on screen, trying to break through the banal advertising landscape, over the next few weeks. BMW has other connections to the Sochi Olympics as well, including designing the two-man bobsled used by the US Olympic team. There's a contest running regarding that project over on BMWTimeTracker. BMW Debuts BMW i Brand Campaign During NBC's Broadcast of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games First-Ever U.S. Television Commercials for BMW i to Begin Airing on February 7. WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J., Feb. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BMW of North America, the Official Mobility Partner of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), will tune into the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games tonight at 7:30pm ET on NBC, which is expected to be one of the most-watched television events of 2014. During NBC's broadcast of the event, BMW is officially launching the brand campaign for the revolutionary BMW i brand with its largest media investment of the year.

BMW's DTM champ swaps rides with Mini's Dakar winner

BMW may not race in F1 any longer, and it doesn't compete with Audi and Porsche in the LMP1 class at Le Mans. It even shut down Mini's short-lived effort on the World Rally Championship. But that doesn't mean it doesn't race at all. In fact it's the current reigning champion both in DTM and at Dakar. So to highlight its varied motorsport programs, the German automaker had two of its top drivers swap rides. German driver Martin Tomczyk, who won the DTM title in 2011 and now drives for BMW, took to Nasser Al-Attiyah's Mini All4Racing Countryman on the sand dunes of Dubai. Meanwhile the Qatari driver, who has won the Dakar Rally two times now, took to the wheel of Tomczyk's BMW M4 DTM around Oschersleben in Germany. They even repeated the game of musical chairs at Hockenheim over the weekend. If anything, the promo clip shot by Red Bull just goes to show how different the varied racing machinery can be, and the challenges posed to racing drivers switching between disciplines. But lessons aside, it's a cool clip, so check it out above. Two champions swap cockpits: Martin Tomczyk drives the MINI ALL4 Racing, Nasser Al-Attiyah the BMW M4 DTM. Munich (DE), 1st May 2015. From asphalt to sand and back again: BMW DTM driver Martin Tomczyk (DE) and MINI ALL4 Racing ace Nasser Al-Attiyah (QA) both entered unfamiliar territory and took each other's cars for a test drive. As part of a video shoot for BMW Motorsport Premium Partner Red Bull in Dubai (AE), Tomczyk, a proven master of his trade on asphalt as the 2011 DTM Champion, took the wheel of the MINI ALL4 Racing, with which X-raid has won the famous Rally Dakar the last four years. During DTM testing in Oschersleben (DE), Al-Attiyah was given the opportunity to drive Tomczyk's BMW M Performance Parts M4 DTM. Two wins at the Rally Dakar are just some of the successes the rally driver from Qatar has had to date. He followed up his first victory in 2011 by winning in the MINI ALL4 Racing in January 2015. "Driving the MINI ALL4 Racing through the sand and over the dunes in Dubai was a fascinating experience and was so much fun," said Tomczyk. "The car has an incredible amount of torwue – and the test in the dunes was an amazing adrenalin rush even for an experienced race driver such as myself. It's totally different to driving on a circuit.

BMW, Sixt carsharing making money most places

The DriveNow carsharing service, which is a partnership between BMW and Sixt, is growing quite rapidly. "We've been surprised about the explosion of new subscriptions, which has helped boost revenue," says Sixt CEO Erich Sixt. The number of DriveNow users has increased from 215,000 at the end of last year to 300,000 today. Sixt says that DriveNow has been profitable in cities in which it has been established for over a year. Perhaps encouraged by its unexpected success, DriveNow is set to expand even further. The service is currently available in five German cities, as well as in San Francisco, California, and the involved parties are considering a five-year plan to expand to 25 more cities in Europe and the US. Still, Sixt expects DriveNow to report a "small-to-medium, single-digit" loss for this year, according to Sixt CFO Julian zu Putlitz. It's no big deal, just the result of startup costs in new areas. Sixt, which is Germany's largest car rental company, also reported that its own second-quarter income rose 12 percent to $37.7 million, while sales rose 7.6 percent to $585.78 million. DriveNow uses a membership and pay-per-minute model that allows customers to rent BMW and Mini vehicles as they need them. The service also acts as a way to let potential customers try out the vehicles and familiarize themselves with the brands before they buy cars of their own at some point. Depending on the location, DriveNow's fleet includes the BMW 1 Series, ActiveE and X1, as well as several Mini vehicles like the Cooper, Clubman and Countryman. Featured Gallery 2012 BMW ActiveE: First Drive View 31 Photos News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Copyright 2014 AOL Green BMW MINI car sharing profit revenue drivenow sixt