BMW Group and Fiat Group Automobiles Considering Cooperation on MINI and Alfa
09 July 2008
The BMW Group and Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on considering the possibility of co-operation in the areas of architectures and components for their MINI and Alfa Romeo vehicles.
The two partners have agreed not to divulge details of the possible collaboration. The results of the cooperation discussions will probably be achieved by the end of the year.
We are currently examining with the Fiat Group possibilities for the joint use of components and systems in MINI and Alfa Romeo vehicles in order to achieve economies of scale and thus cost reductions within the framework of our Strategy Number ONE.
—Friedrich Eichiner, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Corporate and Brand Development
this would be a big boo-boo for Fiat....
for one thing they are already more oriented toward cars like the Panda, Grande Punto and Bravo (and relative platforms). They also have far greater experience in common-rail and CNG technology. They are also doing extremely well on the CO2 (they hold the European record) and Euroncap (both the Grande Punto and Bravo have 5 *****s) side of things. Basically from the tech side of things this would be a big boo-boo....
Even more importantly, the Germans have an extremely poor record when it comes to cooperating with others (Heil! Heil!) and this reason makes such a move from Fiat far more unwise than for the reasons listed above....
Posted by: Karl-Uwe | 09 July 2008 at 11:10 AM