BMW and Jaguar Land Rover announce electrification collaboration

2:03 pm, June 6, 2019

BMW Group and Jaguar Land Rover have announced that they will be partnering up to develop the next generation of electric car technology.

The two companies will work together to design and create electric drive systems, with the aim of lowering the cost of development for both parties.

Though no time scale has been announced as to when buyers will be able to get their hands on this next level of technology, it’s likely to be three or four years away.

BMW spokesman Klaus Fröhlich, member of the board of management for development, said: ‘The automotive industry is undergoing a steep transformation. We see collaboration as key to success in the field of electrification. With Jaguar Land Rover, we found a partner whose requirements for the future generation of electric drive units significantly matched ours.

‘Together, we have the opportunity to cater more effectively for customer needs by shortening development time and bringing vehicles and state-of-the-art technologies more rapidly to market.’

Both BMW and Jaguar Land Rover have made significant progress in the electric car sector, with the i3 and I-Pace respectively delivering success for the two companies.

Technological shift

Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover engineering director, said: ‘The transition to automated, connected, electric and shared vehicles represents the greatest technological shift in the automotive industry in a generation.

‘The pace of change and consumer interest in electrified vehicles is gathering real momentum and it’s essential we work across the industry to advance the technologies required to deliver this exciting future.

‘We’ve proven we can build world-beating electric cars but now we need to scale the technology to support the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover products. It was clear from discussions with BMW Group that both companies’ requirements for next-generation electric drive units to support this transition have significant overlap making for a mutually beneficial collaboration.’

The cost of developing electric car technology is great, and forming a partnership is a way of making the creation of such vehicles more cost-effective.

A joint team of experts from BMW and Jaguar Land Rover will be based in Munich as the project gets under way. However, production work will be undertaken by each company in its respective facilities.

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