BMW to Open Its First Asian Design Studio in Singapore

BMW to Open Its First Asian Design Studio in Singapore
German luxury car maker BMW Group has announced it is opening its first Asian design studio in Singapore, giving Singapore's design industry its latest vote of confidence.

DesignworksUSA, a subsidiary of the BMW Group, will open the design studio early next year and it will be its first outside the US and Germany.

So, in the not-too-distant future, the latest BMW car may just be designed in Singapore.

Dr Helmut Panke, BMW Group chairman, said: "When you look at Singapore's industry situation, you have lots of communications, electronics companies that have R&D centres here.

So, we'll have an opportunity to work with those clients here, just like we do in the US and Germany.

"So it's like a global approach to looking at future design trends and recognising the fact that Asia is going to be one of the three big poles in the economic development - North America, Central Europe and Asia.

"In that sense, we have to be here and not just ship ideas to Asia. In that sense, Singapore, to us, is the hub and therefore we decide to have the centre here."