Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and BMW have been revealed as the latest carmakers to join forces on the development of electric vehicle technology.
The pair said they would use their own existing facilities to jointly develop electric motors, transmissions and power electronics.
There have been several collaborations in the industry as companies race to lead the way in zero-emission and autonomous vehicles in the face of a backlash against petrol and diesel-powered transport.
Both are under pressure to invest heavily but save costs at the same time as the new car market stutters in the face of the global economic slowdown.
In BMW’s case, it announced a 78% decline in first quarter profits last month and warned annual earnings would be down on the previous 12 months.
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Image: BMW has been working on a luxury electric concept
The company made a £1.2bn legal provision for a possible EU fine over alleged collusion among German carmakers
JLR has been the subject of bid speculation since it announced plans to cut thousands of jobs to save cash.
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It is playing catch up following a focus on diesel and recently confirmed a record annual loss of £3.6bn which it largely blamed on a sales slowdown in China.
Both have brought electric vehicles to market – the i3 variants for BMW and, in JLR’s case, the Jaguar I-PACE more recently.
BMW board member Klaus Froehlich said of the tie-up: “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.
Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover’s engineering director, said: “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.”