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BMW Scouting For Partners To Develop Electric MINI
BMW Scouting For Partners For Electric MINI
German luxury carmaker BMW is scouting for partners around the world to lower the cost to build its electric Mini.
The company is in talks with several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) around the world. However, BMW said that "there's no final conclusion on it."
Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor had stated last month that it was in talks for a possible venture to build Mini vehicles in China. BMW currently manufactures Mini vehicles only in Europe.
BMW management board member Peter Schwarzenbauer told Reuters that developing smaller electric cars was challenging, not only because of the financial costs, but also the engineering difficulty of fitting batteries with adequate range into a more modest vehicle package.
BMW plans to launch a new electric Mini model in 2019 and eventually Mini could become an electric vehicle brand to cater to urban consumers, Schwarzenbauer said.
He added that sales of the Mini have fallen around the world with SUVs becoming more popular among car buyers. BMW wants to reverse the lower sales of the Mini by "building the Mini brand in the direction of the electric urban mobility company."
DriveSpark Thinks!
With the lower Mini sales around the globe, it's a step in the right direction by BMW to move the entire brand to electric. That said, reviving the Mini is indeed a difficult task, but with the right partners, BMW could revive the Mini brand.
