BMW Slashes V-8 Production in Favor of Fours

MUNICH, GERMANY – The new BMW 7-Series has just stepped out from behind the curtain, and it’s taken the stage to a house only half full. Demand for BMW’s big engines has dropped so low that the house of the roundel says it can make enough 8-bangers to satisfy the world’s demand using just one shift for four days, according to www.autoblog.com.

A member of BMW’s supervisory board said, “We are producing the wrong engines here.”

Even the sixes, the center of BMW’s engine constellation, are being taken out of production in Munich to be replaced by those with two fewer cylinders in 2011. When the phase-out is complete, the company will be able to build 560,000 four-cylinders per annum.