BMW Shakes Hands With Peugeot Citroen to Make Green Vehicle Components

As the market for electric vehicles continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly common to see automobile manufacturers banding together to form research and development partnerships. With current partnerships existing between Renault and Nissan and the more recent Toyota and Tesla match, it seemed to be only a matter of time before another group of automobile manufacturers came together. In this case, German company BMW has announced along with French manufacturer PSA Peugeot-Citroën a new partnership for the development of electric vehicle components.

The partnership has been formed in order to create a standard for electric vehicle technology across the brands to ensure more efficient production and higher quality. The technology each company intends to work with will cover the various parts of the vehicle that is dedicated to the charge, storage, and use of electricity including battery packs, electric generators, and vehicle chargers. They will also work together to develop hybrid technology and the software needed to allow a hybrid system to work efficiently.

Although both companies have committed to working towards the development of the electric vehicle and hybrid car components each will still maintain control over their own vehicle designs. The aim, aside from streamlining the process, is to promote an atmosphere throughout Europe that would encourage other automobile manufacturers to work together to create a set standard for electric vehicle technology. Once such a standard is established it is believed that it will allow the electric vehicle market to grow much faster.

With both companies working together towards a common goal, it is hoped that each company will be able to move farther along into the electric vehicle and hybrid market. Currently, BMW is still working towards developing several electric and hybrid models but has yet to fully release one onto the market. Similarly, PSA Peugeot-Citroën has several electric vehicle prototypes and models that are still being developed by their respective companies within the French automobile manufacturing group.

Now that there are three major automobile manufacturer partnerships making themselves known in the electric and hybrid market, it will be interesting to see what companies would be willing to make similar arrangements. Considering the fact that each partnership has produced some interesting results, particularly between Toyota and Tesla with a great deal of models preparing to be released thanks to the grouping, it seems like it would be wise for companies to work together in order to help build the market.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.