BMW celebrated the the 11th anniversary for their production plant at Chennai in India. The God Of Cricket, Sachin Tendulkar along with students from College of Engineering of Anna University were present on this glorious day to launch a new initiative called ‘Skill Next’. This will be a technical skill development initiative. Sachin Tendulkar along with the students assembled an engine & gearbox for the upcoming X3 to be launched next month.
Skill Next initiative is expected to reach out to educational institutes in every state and union territory. BMW will give away 365 engine and transmission units to engineering and technical institutes at no cost and will offer a hands-on training towards the advanced motoring techniques of BMW. BMW will deliver the engines and transmission units to the campuses of engineering colleges / ITIs / polytechnics at no cost by the end of 2018.
Handover and demonstration of these units will be done on first-come-first-serve basis after the institutes follow the necessary procedures. Primarily, the institute has to agree to make use of these engines and transmissions inside the laboratories on the campus and for learning purpose only.
BMW will be giving away the TwinPower turbocharged, in-line 4-cylinder motor along with the 8-speed steptronic gearbox under this initiative. Since 2007, BMW has sold close to 50,000 cars with this engine.
After handover, a ‘Train the Trainer’ model will be followed where 40 aftersales master technicians will conduct workshops at BMW dealerships in over 20 cities.
If you are thinking these engines are brand new and built specifically for this CSR, then, NO. During a flood situation in Chennai, multiple engines and gearboxes had been submerged under water. These parts were insuted by Bharti AXA General Insurance and the claims were honored. BMW is making use of these engines and transmissions to be given away to educational institutes.
