BMW and Jaguar Land Rover to jointly develop electric car components

MUMBAI: Tata Motors owned British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and German carmaker BMW today announced intentions of collaborating to develop next generation electric vehicle technology.

“Jaguar Land Rover and BMW Group today confirmed they are joining forces to develop next generation Electric Drive Units (EDUs) in a move that will support the advancement of electrification technologies, a central part of the automotive industry's transition to an ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electric, Shared) future,” JLR said in a release.

The agreement will enable both companies to take advantage of efficiencies arising from shared research and development and production planning as well as economies of scale from joint procurement across the supply chain.


This is in line with the trend of global automakers deleveraging the cost of developing new technologies in today’s age of high paced technological advancements. Technologies today become outdated far quicker than in the past, limiting the time frame for carmakers to amortise their R&D costs. In face of this, manufacturers are increasingly pursuing collaborations and joint ventures to not only split the costs of development but also advantage from the economies of their combined scale.

While a joint team of JLR and BMW Group experts will engineer the EDUs, both partners will develop the systems to deliver the specific characteristics required for their respective range of products, JLR said. The EDUs will be manufactured by each partner in their own production facilities.