Jaguar Land Rover and BMW are joining forces to develop the next generation of electric drive systems.
Jaguar Land Rover and BMW Group announced a collaboration to develop the next-generation Electric Drive Units (EDUs) to support the transition to an ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electric, Shared) future through the advancement of electrification technologies.
The companies will share their knowledge and expertise of electrification; Jaguar Land Rover brought the world’s first premium battery-electric SUV–the Jaguar I-PACE–to market, alongside plugin models, and BMW Group has developed and produced several generations of electric drive units in-house since the launch of its BMW i3 in 2013.
“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, and it’s essential we work across the industry to advance the technologies required to deliver this exciting future,” explains Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Director.
He adds, “We’ve 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 EDUs to support this transition have significant overlap making for a mutually beneficial collaboration.”
The joint investment in research and development, engineering, and procurement across the supply chain will provide the necessary economies of scale to support increased consumer adoption of electric vehicles.
A team of experts from both companies will engineer that EDUs to deliver the specific characteristics required for their respective products. The EDUs will be manufactured by each partner in their own production facilities; Jaguar Land Rover will be at its Wolverhampton-based Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC). This plant will be the centre of propulsion system manufacturing, offering full flexibility between clean Ingenium petrol, diesel engines, and electric units. The plant is further complemented by the Battery Assembly Centre at Hams Hall, which will supply electrified powertrain systems to Jaguar Land Rover’s global vehicle plant.
