BMW and Jaguar Land Rover have announced they are tying the knot on power-train technology \u2014\u00a0but their offspring won\u2019t have a growl.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The luxury auto icons will be developing the next generation of drive units for their electric cars, the latest collaboration between rival automakers as they move to Autos 2.0 \u2014\u00a0or ACES as the joint venture puts it,\u00a0shorthand for Automated, Connected, Electric\u00a0and Shared Vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe transition to ACES represents the greatest technological shift in the automotive industry in a generation,\u201d said Jaguar Land Rover engineering chief Nick Rogers. \u201cThe pace of change and consumer interest in electrified vehicles is gathering real momentum and it\u2019s essential we work across industry to advance the technologies required.\u201d<\/p>\n
Automakers have a long history of collaborating on everything from gas engines (Toyota Supra and BMW Z4 share a 6-cylinder) to chassis (Ford and VW share commercial-truck platforms in global markets). On the ACES front, Honda and General Motors have joined forces on autonomous vehicles, and the recent merger talks between Renault SA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV\u00a0were in part driven by electric vehicle collaboration.<\/p>\n
Hook-ups on ACES have become especially important given the uncertain development timeline of autonomous vehicles and the uncertain market for EVs. With hard government mandates looming, EV development is especially pressing.<\/p>\n
For the first time governments are forcing automakers to make a particular drive-train \u2014 namely,\u00a0\u00a0battery-electric\u00a0\u2014\u00a0even though customers have shown little desire for the technology. Automakers have no choice but to follow an expensive path of making vehicles desired by markets \u2014\u00a0and by governments.<\/p>\n
BMW and Jaguar have made their mark as manufacturers of roaring, gas-powered hellions like the M3 sports sedan and F-Type sports car. But both companies have been bullish on EV tech.<\/p>\n
Given EVs\u00a0range and charging issues, luxury buyers have been targeted as early adopters with multiple cars in their garages. BMW has launched a separate, battery-powered, \u201ci-line\u201d of cars led by the i3 hatchback and i8 sports car. Jaguar, too, has been a pioneer with its i-Pace SUV.<\/p>\n
But sales of these products have been tepid in a U.S. market where EV owners have been reluctant to buy anything not named Tesla. The Silicon Valley-based\u00a0electric car-maker has dominated EV sales \u2014\u00a0for example, its $40,000 Model 3\u2019s unit sales dwarfed the $45,000 i3 in May, 13,950 to 439. And Tesla\u2019s $75,000 Model X\u00a0SUV outsold the $70,000 Jaguar i-Pace SUV by 1,375 to 228.<\/p>\n
Worse for the European duo, Tesla sales have dropped this year as the company has maxed out on selling cars with a $7,500 tax credit. Buyers of BMW and Jaguar EVs still get the full $7,500 credit \u2014\u00a0the eventual\u00a0loss of which could be even more devastating as the automakers struggle to meet U.S. regulations. In Europe, a key market for BMW and Jaguar, demand is weak while government mandates are even more onerous.<\/p>\n
Faced with these realities, BMW and Jaguar are pooling resources\u00a0on a new electric-drive unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve 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,\u201d said Jaguar’s Rogers. \u201cIt was clear from discussions with BMW Group that both companies\u2019 requirements for next-generation EDUs to support this transition have significant overlap making for a mutually beneficial collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agreement allows for efficiencies created from shared R&D \u2014\u00a0as well as from joint procurement across the industry supply chain.<\/p>\n
BMW and Jaguar Land Rover engineers will\u00a0then jointly develop the EDUs \u2014\u00a0then manufacture them in separate facilities to meet the needs of their product lines. The British brand says production will take place at two\u00a0facilities in England: Wolverhampton\u00a0and Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Jaguar I-Pace charges on a 240-volt charger .\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News) BMW and Jaguar Land Rover have announced they are tying the knot on power-train technology \u2014\u00a0but their offspring won\u2019t have a growl. The luxury auto icons will be developing the next generation of drive units for their electric cars, the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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