My BMW App shows CO2 emissions over entire life cycle

MUNICH: The latest update in the My BMW App and MINI App allows drivers to view their personal carbon footprint for the first time.

“Our usage research shows: The information in My Trips is one of the most popular features in the app,” says BMW senior vice president sales steering and strategy, digitalization Dirk Wiedmann.

“We are now expanding this successful function with carbon footprint calculation, giving our customers simple and straightforward access to sustainability-related information via a popular and widely used channel.”

The personal carbon footprint function is available for vehicles with combustion engines, as well as plug-in hybrid and fully electric models.

At launch, this feature will be rolled out across selected models in various European countries.

Calculation of the personal footprint is based on two central sets of figures.

Emissions from vehicle use: My Trips analyses the routes the driver has completed and uses the energy consumed in the process to work out the CO2 emitted.

To this end, CO2 equivalents are calculated using data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

For vehicles with combustion engines, the app calculates the amount of CO2 emitted based on the fuel consumed.

For battery-electric vehicles, it shows the emissions generated when using the average national energy mix – and also tells the driver how high emissions would be by comparison if green energy was used.

Emissions from vehicle production: These are emissions generated during the manufacturing process.

Emissions are recorded from the processing of raw materials, procurement of materials, transport logistics and the production of the model at hand.

The BMW Group already sets out the emissions figures for numerous models in the form of Vehicle Footprint Reports.

These are calculated according to recognised standards for life cycle assessments and certified by the TÜV Rheinland agency.

They can also be downloaded from the BMW Group website.

The My BMW App also includes the Electric Vehicle Analysis introduced last summer.

This function allows customers whose BMW is powered by a combustion engine to simulate how well a fully electric BMW fits their personal driving profile.

Here, the customer selects an electric BMW model as an alternative vehicle in the app.

Once the combustion-engined model has made at least 200 journeys and covered a distance of 2,000km, the analysis shows the journeys the user could have completed on a single charge with the electric vehicle selected, and also flags up charging stations close to frequently visited destinations.

More than 100,000 customers had used this analysis by May 2025.