BMW sees Toyota Motor Corp,'s Lexus brand as a new rival in the Japanese market, BMW Chief Executive Officer Helmut Panke said in an interview with Boersen Zeitung newspaper on Friday.
"Lexus will become a competitor in the premium segment in Japan," Panke said in the interview, released in advance of publication on Saturday.
Panke had said earlier this week that he expected customers in Japan still to opt for BMW even after looking at Lexus in showrooms because BMW was the more dynamic of the premium brands in the Japanese market.
Just as the arrival of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class model line in the mid-1980s could not dent sales of the crucial BMW 3-Series family, Lexus won't hurt BMW in Japan, Panke had said.
Boersen Zeitung quoted Panke as saying that he expected BMW's pretax profit this year to reach "about" the 3.6 billion euros achieved in 2004, despite the rise in oil and steel prices.
Panke was also relaxed about developments in the U.S. automobile market, where price incentives for the purchase of BMWs are lower currently than they were in 2004.
The problems facing U.S. automakers General Motors and Ford would have no influence on BMW, Panke said.
U.S. auto parts supplier Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month in the biggest bankruptcy filing in U.S. automotive history.
"We should be more relaxed about the whole thing," the paper quoted Panke as saying. "American bankruptcy law doesn't have any operational effect at all. Companies carry on as before."
Panke also said BMW was ready to take advantage of the currently more favourable euro-dollar exchange rate to hedge its exposure to foreign exchange swings.
"There it makes sense to build up hedging positions again for the coming years," Panke told the paper.
Source: Reuters