PSA Peugeot Citroën and BMW Group have joined forces to develop and manufacture new small petrol engines.
PSA Peugeot Citroën and BMW Group have joined forces to develop and manufacture new small petrol engines.
The two companies will invest about R7,5 billion in the design and development of the project.
Peugeots, Citroëns and future Mini variants will be equipped with engines developed and produced by this cooperation project. The powerplants will benefit from the latest technologies.
The BMW Group Research and Development department will be in charge of designing the engines, and the common project team will be based in Munich. PSA Peugeot Citroën will manage process development, engineering for production and procurement.
The production capacity will meet the future needs of Peugeot, Citroën and Mini vehicles, and could reach up to one million units a year.
“The cooperation, which calls for both expertise in automotive technologies and the ability to manage large-scale production, is expected to generate economies of scale and meet both partners’ segment-specific gasoline engine requirements,” BMW’s statement read.
A BMW spokesman said the engines produced by the project would not be used in the company’s BMW luxury cars.
BMW has a separate agreement with Toyota to supply 10 000 to 20 000 diesel engines per year for Minis.