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Kenya becomes regional training centre for BMW

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 1 – Bavaria Auto in Kenya has been designated as the regional training centre for BMW business in East and Central Africa as the company strengthens its foothold in the high-end car market in the country.

The Bavaria Auto Regional Training Center becomes the third in Africa, with the others being in South Africa and Egypt.

Bavaria Auto Director Dinesh Kotecha said the firm had hired two senior Managers from Euro Motors, the BMW and Rolls Royce dealers in Bahrain.

Stavros Diamantidis joins Bavaria as General Manager while Chrisjomar Buen is the new Technical Manager.

“Over the last one year, we have invested more than Sh120 million to further raise the sales and service capacity of Bavaria Auto through an integrated process that revolves around technical training, equipment upgrades and stockholding of spare parts,” said Kotecha.

Bavaria has launched the new BMW X3 sports utility vehicle offering a safer, more fuel efficient and comfortable vehicle with a price tag of Sh6 million to Sh9 million.

Sales manager Roy Kyalo said despite a struggling global economy, nearly 118,000 BMW X3’s were sold last year and local sales nearly doubled from the previous year, as Bavaria Auto reported 48 units sold compared to 28 in 2010.

He said they expect a 25 percent to 30 percent sales increase in 2012.

The new model offers new features such as brake energy regeneration and electro mechanical steering which help the car save fuel.

“As soon as the driver stops accelerating, the released kinetic energy from the vehicle is transformed into electrical energy that is stored, which means that the battery is recharged for free, resulting in less fuel consumption,” he said.

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“Electromechanical steering is active during the actual steering manoeuvre and allows the electric motor to consume no energy while the vehicle is moving in a straight line,” he added.

Kyalo said that the new model consumes 5.6 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres and accelerates from 0-100 km/h in only 8.5 Seconds.

“Whenever the vehicle is kept immobile via the brake or Automatic Hold function, the engine shuts itself of automatically, saving fuel” he said.

“It automatically jumps back to life as soon as the accelerator is pressed.”

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