BMW and GWM could soon be partnering up to focus on EV production in China. This information is gathered from two unnamed sources who are incremental to this joint venture, according to a report by Reuters.
“We are in discussions with Great Wall Motors about setting up a joint venture to produce cars in Changshu,” commented the unnamed BMW executive. The second source confirmed that Changshu production would not be dealing with petrol or diesel cars, thus hinting at electric mobility production.
With relation to this, the China hopes for at least a fifth of its auto sales to consist of electric vehicles by 2025 and has loosened restrictions regarding joint-venture regulations to reach this goal. This deal would therefore assist China in reaching this goal and increase BMW’s relevance in this market.
Currently, BMW is in partnership with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, with which it is producing cars at two of its plants in Shenyang. This new venture with GWM is not expected to affect this BMW-Brilliance partnership.
There are speculations that the next Mini EV will be the focal product of this collaboration. This is based on an investigation conducted by Bernstein analysts.
BMW’s sales have grown by 11,3% over the past year, making it the second-bestselling premium brand behind Audi. It may be one step ahead of Mercedes-Benz despite it gaining a 26,6% growth in market share in 2016.
On the other side of the venture is GWM, which is currently one of the largest Chinese manufacturers with its shares growing by 19,2% over the past two years.
