BMW and Jaguar Land Rover are set to expand their recently announced collaboration to include internal combustion engines, according to Autocar. Last month, the two automakers had announced they would be working together to develop next-generation drive units for electric vehicles in a bid to save development costs and time. Now, the partnership will extend to conventional petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains, a source told the publication.
The deal will see BMW supplying JLR with internal combustion engines ranging from four- to six-cylinder units, including hybrid variants. The insider says that the move will allow JLR to scale down its R&D in conventional powertrains and switch its development focus to electric-based ones.
The EV project that was announced in June will see development centre around progressing the fifth-gen (or Gen 5) of BMW’s eDrive tech, which will make its debut in the iX3. The new family of powertrains can be fitted to front- and rear-wheel drive platforms, and is capable of all drive forms.
As for BMW, the new arrangement will ensure an expansion of volume for its conventional powertrains beyond its own BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands.
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Other manufacturers are cooperating, even though they are competitors. Proton and Perodua do not have anything going between them..
Both Proton and Perodua focus on the local market. In international markets, the emission standards are so tight (and will become even tighter), that designing a new engine is too expensive for a single manufacturer. And as some markets partly go to EV now, the production figures for petrol engines are going down now.