Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of Tata Motors, and BMW Group confirmed on Wednesday that they are joining forces to develop next-generation electric drive units in a move that will support the advancement of electrification technologies.
The initiative will be a central part of the automotive industry's transition to an ACES (autonomous, connected, electric, shared) future. The strategic collaboration will build on the knowledge and expertise in electrification at both companies, according to a statement released by Tata Motors.
Jaguar Land Rover has demonstrated its leading technical capability in bringing the world's first premium battery electric SUV to market -- the 2019 World Car of the Year, the Jaguar I-PACE, as well as plug-in hybrid models. BMW Group brings vast experience of developing and producing several generations of electric drive units in-house since it launched the BMW i3 in 2013.
Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Director, said: "The transition to ACES represents the greatest technological shift in the automotive industry in a generation. The pace of change and consumer interest in electrified vehicles is gathering real momentum. It is essential we work across industry to advance the technologies required to deliver this exciting future."He added: "We have proven we can build world beating electric cars but now we need to scale the technology to support the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover products. It was clear from discussions with BMW Group that both companies' requirements for next-generation electric drive units to support this transition have significant overlap making for a mutually beneficial collaboration."
The agreement will enable both companies to take advantage of efficiencies arising from shared research and development and production planning as well as economies of scale from joint procurement across the supply chain.
A team of Jaguar Land Rover and BMW Group experts will engineer the electric drive units with both partners developing the systems to deliver the specific characteristics required for their respective range of products.
The units will be manufactured by each partner in their own production facilities. For Jaguar Land Rover, this will be at its Wolverhampton-based engine manufacturing centre which was confirmed as the home for company's global electric drive units production in January.
The plant employing 1,600 people will be the centre of propulsion system manufacturing offering full flexibility between clean Ingenium petrol and diesel engines and electric units.
The engine manufacturing centre will be complemented by the recently announced battery assembly centre at Hams Hall near Birmingham in supplying electrified powertrain systems to Jaguar Land Rover's global vehicle plants.
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