Who doesn’t love unlikely mashups? Hulk and Thor, Run DMC and Aerosmith and that cheetah that’s friends with a dog. All of which are awesome mashups and prove that when two parties, however unlikely, come together for a common good, great things can happen. BMW is a brand that seems to be teaming up with a lot of car companies, as of late. However, it seems that keeping these partnerships is proving to be a bit difficult.
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BMW’s most famous partnership is with Toyota, both of which are developing the BMW Z4/Toyota Supra together. Although, BMW did most of the engineering heavy lifting and both cars will actually be assembled by Magna. However, there were also rumors of a small-car architecture being co-developed by BMW and Toyota, a project that’s seemingly fallen flat. Differences in opinion and poor timing have led to halts between the two automotive giants.
There were also rumors a while back of the Bavarians and McLaren possibly working on a supercar. The idea was the McLaren would make the chassis while BMW would style the exterior and interior while also helping to develop the engine. It was supposed to be a joint collaboration between McLaren and the M Division. In fact, M Division CEO Frank van Meel even spent some time in Woking this past summer, with McLaren. However, according to Automobile, the venture fell through and isn’t going to happen. “It’s a great piece of kit,” acknowledged a senior BMW manager. “But we came to the conclusion that it is the wrong car for these fast moving times.”
The Bavarians were also said to be working on a new joint-venture with bitter rival Daimler. Since the dawn of time, BMW and Daimler have gone head-to-head. Though it seems that the two companies were working on settling their differences for a common goal, to develop two new scalable architectures. Though, a cartel scandal over diesel engines and AdBlue caused Daimler to self-indict and come clean, without telling BMW ahead of time. So BMW has put their joint-venture on hold for the time being. The financial upside of the deal might still cause BMW and Daimler to go through with it but it won’t be an enthusiasts partnership, at least on the side of BMW.
It seems that BMW is unafraid of partnering with other brands to get things done. Even bitter cross-town rivals. However, it also seems that this is trickier than it sounds.
[Source: Automobile]
so the supercar with BMW/Mclaren is over? or did frank go there learn stuff make prototypes and came back with so much knowledge he figured he doesn’t need mclaren and the M division can build one themselves?
nevermind found my answer “The thinking in Munich now is BMW will go it alone with a car that’s
more highly advanced in terms of the electrification of its powertrain.” my guess is they will make one in future themselves when they think the time is right.
Nice find bro. But BMW need to get on with it and quickly introduce new models to market. The market is getting really competitive with several new carmaker entrants looking to disrupt the industry using the emergence of electric powertrains to get their way in, trying to be the next Tesla. This isn’t the time to be losing market share as it may never be gotten back.
yes very true
That render photo of the silver i8 in this article is what the i8 should really look like. Give it that body and make “full (100%) electric” one of its powertrain options and it will fulfil its destiny.
Sometimes it seems like BMW’s policy is all over the place. (It could be the wrong impression)