In an ever-accelerating race to introduce new EV technology, BMW and JLR will team up to share development costs.
Car manufacturers joining forces to share development costs is no trend. As everything, and we do mean everything, continues to cost more money, it only makes sense that carmakers join forces and co-develop technologies. In this situation, JLR is already set to grab a BMW V8 engine for future applications, and so sharing EV research and tech with the German giant seems only right.
Numerous OEMs are already on the cost sharing boat, be it for a unique product or a full-line integration. FCA and Renault have become bedfellows, and we all know about BMW and Toyota and the whole Z4/Supra story. These are but a pair of examples of how cost saving measures are the way of the future.
And the future belongs to EVs and this brings up an interesting point mentioned by Carl-Peter Forster a former chief executive of Tata Motors and a former BMW executive in an interview with Reuters: “Carmakers are much less precious about sharing electric car technology because it is much harder to create product differentiation with electric car tech. They all accelerate fast, and everybody can do quality and ride and handling,”
Sadly, design and infotainment/connectivity technologies have more influence than what’s actually under the bonnet. This new reality actually opens the doors wide open for countless associations of the like.
The co-developed electric drivetrain technologies will be taken back to BMW’s and JLR’s respective factories and used in their own products. No word as to what vehicles or any timelines for the moment.
Interestingly, Tata/JLR and BMW have quite the history where Ford turned out to be the biggest loser…
Source: Reuters
