BMW to add another brand

It’s not interested in buying Volvo, but it does want to add a fourth brand to the BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce lines it is already producing. 

That’s the report in German finance magazine Capital and German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which say that the fourth brand was one of several issues to be addressed Thursday by the BMW governing board. 
 
The plan for a fourth brand is in addition to an already approved smaller Rolls-Royce and a “estate,” i.e., wagon, version of the Mini and an SUV Mini.
 
The Board meeting is expected to be followed by a press conference at which BMW announces details of its future plans, including business plans designed to increase the company’s total production to 1.6 million vehicles by 2009. It sold 1.37 million vehicles world wide last year. Expansion of the company’s sales have lately been affected by unfavorable exchange rates between the Euro and other currencies, especially the dollar.