BMW joins Daimler and GM in hybrid venture
BMW is to pool resources with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler to develop and manufacture environment-friendly petrol-electric hybrid engines and transmissions.
The pact could save the partners hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs while they seek to catch up with Toyota, the world leader in hybrid cars. Japan's biggest carmaker has been selling them for almost 10 years and predicts that hybrids will replace millions of conventional petrol and diesel engines in cars over the next decade.
The three were already in talks with other potential partners in the alliance, said Tom Stephens, GM's group vice-president in charge of powertrains, yesterday following a joint statement announcing the deal.
Under its terms, BMW has signed a memorandum of understanding with GM and Daimler, with the intention of entering a definitive agreement before the end of the year. GM and Daimler said they had committed themselves to a partnership under a separate agreement signed several days ago.
The goal is to bring to market commercially viable so-called "two-mode" hybrid powertrains, which have fuel-efficiency and exhaust emissions advantages over conventional engines.
A similar system is used in Toyota's Prius, total sales of which passed the 350,000 mark earlier this year.
While GM, BMW and Daimler will share the unit's basic design, they intend to use it in a wide variety of vehicles, depending on each partner's marketing goals. "The creation of a shared technology platform will allow us more quickly to integrate the best technologies on the market," said Burkhard Goschel, BMW's management board member with responsibility for development and procurement. "And because the technologies will be adapted to the individual models, the participating brands will retain their distinctive characters."
In "an alliance of equals", the partners are setting up a joint development centre at Troy, Michigan, to develop both the system.
GM already has hybrid buses and a pick-up truck on the market but does not expect the joint venture's advanced system to appear in new vehicles before late 2007.
Source: Financial times