The joint venture set up by the two, BMW Peugeot Citroen Electrification, will use the money to begin operations in the second quarter of 2011. The investment announced today will not produce effects before 2014, the year when the vehicles of the two companies involved will begin using the same components.
Those parts will include battery packs, E-machines, generators, power electronics, chargers and the software for the hybrid systems. Research and development will take place at the JV's location in the greater Munich area, with the actual production to be conducted in Mulhouse, France. Both locations will hire some 650 employees, most of them in Germany (400 employees). When production kicks off at full throttle in France, the group will employ there about 250 people.
“BMW Group and PSA share the same vision of the importance of hybridization in the future. The joint venture will enable us to act more strategically and with a single, shared approach. For us, joining forces also means significant economies of scale, shared development costs, using standardized components and a faster development process,” said Norbert Reithofer, BMW chairman of the board.
The collaboration between the two auto makers builds on the existing arrangements which have brought the two significant cost reductions. PSA and BMW produced together 1.8 million engines, most of them used in INI, Peugeot and Citroen vehicles.
Google News