BMW Fourth Brand Will Not Cooperate With Brilliance For The Time Being

In the development and application of new energy technology, BMW group has been working tirelessly. At this year's Beijing auto show, Dr. Reithofer, President of BMW group, told the media: "in 2013," Megacity (Super City) "will be officially launched as BMW's first mass production of pure electric vehicles. But BMW's upcoming fourth brand, brilliance, may not be part of the partnership.

New products adapt to China market

According to "daily economic news", unlike the previous hydrogen powered 7 Series sedan or MINIE electric vehicle, Megacity is not the name of a specific vehicle, but a brand new and complete sub brand of BMW group following BMW, Rolls-Royce and MINI. It is reported that the sub brand will create more moving, more accord with the characteristics of BMW electric vehicle products.

It is reported that the Megacity electric vehicle will be manufactured at BMW's German Leipzig plant, which will become the main manufacturing center of BMW electric vehicles in the future.

A related person in charge of BMW Greater China told the daily economic news reporter, "we may launch the relevant pure electric vehicle products in 2013, but it is not yet clear whether the brand Megacity will be launched at the first time."

For the Chinese market, the person in charge said that BMW signed a cooperation agreement with the China Automotive Technology Research Center and the national power grid earlier this year, and will launch 50 MINIE electric vehicles to the Chinese market before the end of this year. Next year, ActiveE electric vehicles will also join the plan. But he did not disclose the specific area of the launch, "our partners will arrange this."

Recently, the 4 national standards issued by the Ministry of industry and information on the "electric vehicle transmission charging interface", "General requirements for electric vehicle charging stations", "communication protocol between electric vehicle battery management system and non vehicular charger", and "test method of energy consumption of light hybrid electric vehicles" were examined by relevant departments. The relevant person in charge of BMW Greater China indicated that they did not know the specific situation for a while. But he stressed that if the standards currently implemented by BMW are inconsistent with the relevant domestic policies and regulations, BMW will soon improve the products in the Chinese market.

In his view, compared with the core technology of electric vehicles, it is not a very difficult task to improve the targeting of external devices. For example, Plug-in (plug-in charging technology) facilities, although BMW has not yet a mass production vehicle equipped with the technology, but for BMW, there is no obstacle in technology, as long as the market needs, BMW can in a very short period of time this technology should be used in mass production vehicle. "Hybrid 7 Series cars and X6 multi-purpose vehicles should be equipped with this technology earlier." {page_break}

New energy as a whole to promote stability

According to BMW's concept, BMW will promote hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles in 2009~2020, and will gradually transition to clean energy vehicles after 2020.

As for BMW's latest developments in new energy projects, Reithofer, chairman of BMW group, confirmed at the annual regular meeting of the BMW group that BMW's next generation hybrid vehicle will be a brand-new 5 generation sedan. This concept vehicle has been exhibited at the Geneva motor show in March this year. Dr Reithofer also revealed that the mass production version of the vehicle will be on sale in 2011. In addition, Dr. Reithofer also announced that after the introduction of hybrid 5 Series cars, other hybrid vehicles, including hybrid 3 Series cars, will follow up later.

It is reported that the hybrid 5 Series cars will use the further evolved modular mild hybrid power system, which is introduced on the hybrid 7 Series cars. The Mercedes Benz S400 hybrid system also adopts a similar system.

The upcoming hybrid 5 Series sedan has increased the motor power from 15 kilowatts to 40 kilowatts, which makes the hybrid 5 series have the driving function of all electric mode.

Brilliance does not involve new brands.

Qi Yumin, chairman of Brilliance Automotive Group, has introduced a plan to cooperate with BMW to develop new energy vehicles.

For the specific content of the plan, the relevant person in charge of the BMW Greater China region did not disclose. He just said BMW would jointly develop a new energy vehicle with brilliance, which would not use hydrogen power technology or products within the Megacity project.

However, there is news that BMW group and Tongji University jointly engaged in the electric vehicle research project will be the cornerstone of BMW and brilliance in the new energy projects. The research project plans to transform BMW's 5 series long wheelbase sedan into a pure electric vehicle. Tongji University develops key components of the electric drive system, including motors, batteries and power electronics systems. The new energy vehicle in China, from China and China will be produced at BMW plant in Shenyang in the future.