BMW and Toyota join forces

This article reports on BMW and Toyota’s joint venture and other automakers getting together in a joint effort to move electric vehicles forward.

If you have a good idea, do not tell anyone and especially a competitor in your field. Today’s automotive industry is fiercely competitive and a ‘wrong move’ is to be avoided at all cost as in possibly going out of business! However, the environment is also ripe for ‘joining together’ for automotive ventures. This is somewhat like extended family members ‘joining together’ under one roof thus paying one heating and electric bill, property and school taxes, etc. rather than paying multiple bills individually. The Wall Street Journal has reported that BMW and Toyota have entered into a joint partnership in which both automakers will work on the development of batteries for the next generation of green (electric) cars. Furthermore, BMW will reportedly provide Toyota with diesel engines. This leads the way for BMW and Toyota to possibly do other automotive projects. Regarding automotive joint ventures, I did an article on BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and GM agreeing to install a universal connector that will work on all their electric vehicles at high voltage recharging stations. Progressive automakers realize that specific key components (recharge time, driving range, composite vehicle components, high voltage recharging stations, cost reduction, safety, etc.) can be done faster and at a higher level in-house rather than waiting for pure market forces to get the job done. I believe that it is indeed a positive development that automakers are streamlining the process and reducing the number of redundant engineering, parts, and energy cost to drive. Hopefully, more driving please will be the result!