This week, BMW Group proudly announced that its Designworks styling subsidiary had recently been honored with numerous awards… for its John Deere bulldozers. I had no idea that BMW had any ties — indirect or otherwise —with Deere & Company, let alone that they were absolutely killing it with some of the sexiest designed construction and forestry equipment on the planet.
However, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, the flash-masters at Lamborghini started off building tractors and just about every major manufacturer has tried its hand in aviation, industrial equipment, military vehicles, or some combination of the three. Some of even started there. What makes BMW’s involvement with Deere stand out, however, is how much pride the company is taking in the accolades it received for the heavy machinery, even as the Group’s automotive sales took a nosedive last year.
At the end of last year year, BMW Group was down 9.7 percent on sales of 365,204 compared to 2015’s 404,537. While the company’s flagship sedan raked in some accolades for its user interface and the 2 Series garnered praise for drivability in M trim, there wasn’t an overabundance of ballyhoo being thrown around for any single production model.
This was not true for the BMW Designworks collaboration with Deere. The 850K Crawler and the 1050K Crawler were recognized in early 2016 with the Red Dot Award for outstanding product design. According to BMW, the vehicles’ design was conceived “to communicate the two core features of these vehicles — robustness and strength” while “unifying elements such as the faceted exterior surfaces create a bold, no-nonsense expression.”
While I’m curious as to whether bulldozers currently on the market have a lighthearted or garish expression, I think can definitely get on board with the no-nonsense image of industrial-grade equipment.
The Crawler also received the highly prestigious 2016 Good Design Award for industry while the Ferrari 488 Spider and Audi A4 took the award for cars. Also honoring the 1050K was the iF Design Awards.
“Regardless of the industry, as we look to the future, we face more technological and digitalization challenges being balanced with a clean aesthetic appearance” said Designworks’ boss Oliver Heilmer. “As a part of the BMW Group, we strongly believe that design leadership can help answer some of these challenges. Through collaboration and cross-industrial knowledge exchange we are able to develop compelling product solutions — for customers and for business.”
I might not know anything about what makes for a good bulldozer, but I have a feeling that BMW might want to consider getting Heilmer and the rest of his team a little more involved in its automotive brand’s revamped design department.
[Image: BMW Group]
Pictured is the new 5 Series.
It gained a little heft along with most of BMW’s lineup.
Yes, but that new XXX-Drive makes it awesome off road.
Lamborghini was not the only Italian carmaker to produce farm equipment.
So did Alfalfa Romeo.
(I’ll be here all week!)
Alfa still does!
Would have been nice to see some actual photos of the equipment to support the story, otherwise it is just click-bait!
A Hofmeister kink and floating roof combination on a John Deere? Well, I’ve seen it all now!
Heck, if all a floating roof means is that the pillars are blacked out, that’s nothing new. JD’s been doing that since Generation II (the 30 Series) in 1973 with the Sound-Gard body:
http://www.agweb.com/assets/1/6/mainfckeditordimension/jd4430-2869hrs.jpg
It was even like that on the open-station versions with 4-post ROPS:
http://i1182.photobucket.com/albums/x444/aarontcombs/IMG_5229_zps7c5862a5.jpg
And back then, you could still get a completely open-station model (no ROPS) if you really wanted, not just on a basic 4030 but even a top-of-the-line monster 4630:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/fc/40/68/fc4068af098d659416cb1baa8db63b4b.jpg
I feel like at one point, Husqvarna Motorcycles (Husqvarna also makes outdoor equipment) was owned by BMW. But I didn’t know they had any involvement with John Deere.
Aero is killing car design and designers still gotta eat…
No, Product “Planning” and Marketing are.
Please don’t park your icky comments next to my nice ones.
At least this isn’t Twitter.
Kinda ironic the least reliable ag company teams up with a European auto mfg.
…then again Fiat owns a major portion of the ag industry as is.
@Hummer
That side of FIAT is doing well
They own the names of companies that built half of the world, they would really have to screw up to start losing money from that industry.
@Hummer
They have since expanded that side of the Industry
LOL, box store “tractors” don’t count as Ag equipment.
Why the hate for John Deere?
They carry a fairly good reputation around here. My cousin has two high hour 8650’s on his farm that have been relatively trouble free considering the work they perform. Not as dependable or powerful as his Case 9170 but that is to be expected at a price difference of $30k or so.
Maybe Kubota should start building cars….
Better lines than that new Camaro.
The US isn’t everything. Globally BMW sold over 2.3m cars in 2016, over 5% up vs. 2015.
“What makes BMW’s involvement with Deere stand out, however, is how much pride the company is taking in the accolades it received for the heavy machinery, even as the Group’s automotive sales took a nosedive last year.”
So the company is diversified. And one group’s work has nothing to do with the others… because they’re diversified.
It probably has more to do with egromatics. Something as simple well designed steps or hand holds or even the angle of the steering wheel can be a big deal. Especially when you operate one on a day to day basis.
P.S. My gal pal who is a recently minted commercial truck driver raves on how Volvo thought out various things that makes living with their truck tractors easier than the competition.
As a general rule, once management of anything starts concerning themselves more with “winning awards” by pleasing mediocre twits, than with winning the sales wars by producing products for actual buyers; they go from being Hollywood to being the Iranian “art” film “industry.” Not necessarily bad, but not particularly relevant, either.