The Federal Motor Transport Authority in Germany has declared BMW and MINI as the most fuel efficient premium brands available in that market. The agency has calculated fleet average fuel economy for all new cars registered in Germany during 2008 and BMW/MINI came out on top with an average of 39.9 mpg (U.S.) and CO2 emissions of 158 g/km Those numbers are lower than the average for all German made vehicles, a number that stood at 165 g/km. Of course, that isn't necessarily a direct comparison since the MINIs are made in the UK and help pull up thecompany average while the German aggregate number also includes cars from Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and the VW Group.
The German fleet average for BMW is considerably higher than its U.S. CAFE average for 2008 of 27.4 mpg, in part because more than half of the BMWs in Europe are diesel powered and BMW only started selling diesels here a few months ago. BMW also doesn't sell any of its four cylinder gasoline engines here or offer technologies like automatic start/stop yet. In the next few years the company will likely begin offering those technologies as well as new hybrids that will help its U.S. numbers.