BMW Announce Platform Sharing Agreement with Fiat Group
Today BMW announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to share future platforms with the Fiat group. If you are about to go head over heels at a prospect of seeing a BMW 3-series carrying the Fiat label, you need not worry, the cooperation agreement proposes that the Mini and Alfa Romeo brands will share future platforms.
"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",said Friedrich Eichiner, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG.
Full details of how the collaboration will work are yet to be revealed, but it is likely the agreement will not be seen in production form until the third generation Mini Cooper which is still some five years away.
Er, the smallest Alfa was the 147. Now there's also the Mito, but there's no way Mini will release a C-segment car. The only cars that may share their plaforms are the Mini and Mito.
Why is it Dangerous? , you wait till BMW and Merc join together.
It could mean things a lot of people are waitng so long - sport RWD-cars from Alfa, Lancia and may be from Fiat as well.
Daimler researched just such an arrangement with Fiat seeking benefits for their Smart cars and the A & B class MB cars and found that Fiat would not be cost effective and in fact costs more to produce their small platforms...I don't see how BMW can make this work any better... If anything the only sharing has to be the Mini and 1 series and perhaps BMW selling engines to Fiat...other than that the only benefit I see is for Fiat...
Smart move... because the compact car market is growing and growing and by achieving economies of scale in their production, this will bring better profits for both companies.
besides the mini and alfa platform sharing, isn't it possible that alfa romeo is going to use the next 5-series' platform for the 169?
meanwhile, they argue about heritage, design, blah blah blah when at the end, they aren't even the ones whose money is being taken for such cars
People still buy Volvo's Saabs,Mazda/Ford,Jaguar, Audi's,Nissan/Renault, PSA., shared platforms for GM/Toyota for USA etc.,etc., and so it goes on. Technology,EU & ever increasing world govt regulations involve huge development costs and only way to contain these costs is through shared components.
Dangerous move by BMW.