Recent news indicate that the collaboration between the German car maker BMW and its Chinese counterpart, Brilliance, has been extended for an additional 10 years.

This was not an expected move, as the contract between the two was set to run for 4 more years before it needed renewal.

As you might have known, any foreign manufacturer that desires to build and sell its products on the Chinese market has to enter a partnership with a local company, and for BMW, that company is Brilliance. The Chinese government also forbids outside brands to have more the 50% of the Chinese counterpart shares.

Taking all this into consideration, BMW decided that the best course of action will be to extend the collaboration contract for 10 more years, until 2028. Still, there are those that think this is not quite wise of BMW, as reports have already started coming in about Brilliance borrowing design elements from BMW for use in their own creations.

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Marcus M.

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While communism isn’t as widespread as it once was, there are still a few countries that thrive in such a structure, and China is a prime example.

In recent years, manufacturers from the automotive industry and not only flocked to the country in hopes to take advantage of its blooming economy.

Yet, for all the business that it provides, China also put a lot of obstacles for foreign companies. The biggest issue affecting BMW in this country is the inability to expand freely. China has a strict law that says any car maker wishing to build vehicles in the Asian country, has to be in collaboration with a local company.

This is exactly the case with the BMW – Brilliance venture, but even so, China only allows BMW to own 50 percent of shares into Brilliance, which the German car maker already owns. This leaves BMW in quite a tough spot as they only benefit of 50 percent of the income in China, and they are unable to expand as their heart desires.

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Marcus M.

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The post China market sets a lot of limits for BMW appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

I can’t help but think that the more or less subtle war between the three German automotive giants is the reason they all offer splendid models and services.

While you can’t really point to any one of them and say he has won it, each year can bring new victories for either.

For example, the first couple of months of this year presented themselves with Audi overtaking BMW in sales, even if by a slim margin. This is the first time in 9 years it happened and the response was pretty much what we should have expected.

BMW announced expanding their production facilities in China in order to churn out more engines so that they can catch up and reclaim their rightful place. Why did they choose China? Like it was predicted quite long ago, last year China managed to become the largest market not just for BMW, but Audi too and pretty much most other high profile manufacturers.

The effort is being backed by BMW’s Chinese partners, Brilliance, and the end results point towards a production of 400.000 units each year.

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Marcus M.

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By now, everyone must have heard about the Brilliance – BMW joint venture that is active on the Chinese market.

With so many models coming out on either Chinese or European markets, BMW is hard pressed to keep everything under control.

So, in order to control the quality of the products sold in China, BMW decided to build the engines for the Chinese vehicles locally. Of course, it is all done under BMW supervision, making sure that each unit is up to spec and delivering expected performance for a Bimmer every time.

All these units will be manufactured at a local plant ran by Brilliance, BMW’s Chinese counterpart. Said power plants will be delivering horsepower to models like the 3 Series, 5 Series and X1. If this proves to be lucrative, BMW might even consider building engines locally for more vehicles on the current and future range.

These rumors, saying that the engines produced by the Chinese in the southern Sichuan province will be used in the BMW models sold on other markets than the Chinese might be interpreted the wrong way. Yet this means only one thing: the German car maker isn’t cutting corners and saving money on models just because they are built for the Chinese market (which has gotten quite a notorious connotation nowadays). So, no matter where the engine powering your Bimmer was produced, you can expect top performance in a true BMW way.

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Marcus M.

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The post Brilliance will be using BMW tech to build engines appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

By now everyone knows about BMW’s endeavors into China. To tackle the rapidly growing market, they formed a joint venture going by the name Zinoro.

The vehicles will use much of the BMW technologies and platforms, but they will not sport the same emblem, and will be exclusive to China.

And it seems that Zinoro is almost ready to launch their BMW X1-based electric vehicle, as the spy photos caught recently would suggest. What is really surprising about them is that the pictures were taken not in China, as you might expect, but in Germany.

So what should we take from this? Will the Zinoro X1 EV be available in Europe too, or is the German car maker so strict with the quality of their vehicles that they won;t stand testing them anywhere else? I personally think the latter, as they can’t really spare any expenses right now at the beginning of their path into China.

Besides the badge, the Zinoro EV also lost something else that is BMW-specific, the trademark kidney grilles, but other that that it seems pretty much the same as the X1.

Photo credit: autoevolution.com

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Marcus M.

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The post Zinoro electric vehicle spied appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

A little while back BMW announced a new brand of cars which will be under joint custody of both the german car company and it’s chinese couterpart, Brilliance.

With the main base in China, and going by the name of Zhi Nuo (The Promise), the brand aims to sell its products world wide, even in markets that might be considered saturated or matured.

It is important to remember that even if Zhi Nuo will base the cars on BMW’s models, they will be a different brand. The name was a challenge to come up with as they had to tiptoe around a lot of patented names.

As a first model, the player founded and funded by BMW will make a suitable competitor to Mercedes-Benz’s B-Class. This new MCV will be using a 2.0 liter four cylinder N20 turbocharged engine and I believe it is important this vehicle make it big, proving that even new players can succeed in this very competitive environment. This is especially important if they plan to take on markets like Europe, where the big car makers are well dug in.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post Zhi Nuo car to sport a N20 engine appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

BMW isn’t an enormous conglomerate of car brands like GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and the rest. They only own Rolls Royce, Mini, their two wheeled division and the recently founded i sub-brand.

It’s the sort of operation that works well with the company organisation and, more importantly, with the product focus the Bavarians are so good at.

Still, the newest announcement from BMW and their Chinese partners, Brilliance, speaks of a bit of a departure with this idea.

The two will join forces to create a brand new… brand. The new car maker under the wing of BMW doesn’t have a name yet, but it does have a good product idea and a new marketing direction.

BMW has had quite the success on the Chinese market but what they’ve got to say about it is something you don’t hear everywhere else.

Yes, the Chinese market is a very strong one, the one that’s going to grow the most and all that but it lacks something.

None of the Chinese produced cars are attractive to the enormous markets all over the rest of the world. This is where the new partnership between BMW and Brilliance comes in.

The new EVs these two partners are going to create are going to aim for the export market as much as they are going to do so for the Chinese one.

To begin with, the lucky Chinese will get themselves a chance at a brand new BMW 5 Series plugin hybrid. The unveiling of this model took place at Auto Shanghai 2011, all the way back in April.

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Marcus M.

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The post BMW & Brilliance to create new EV brand in China appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

There’s a rather popular saying around the internet that goes a little like this: God made the world, everything else is made in China.

Though cars have been copied there for decades, they’ve only actually been properly built for a couple of years and BMW was one of the pioneers of the idea.

By some accounts, the Bavarians have partially sold their soul to the devil, but the Chinese market’s growth is a major part of the company’s success.

Production in China have been going swimmingly for so long that yet the demands of the market are so large that BMW and Brilliance (their Chinese partner) still can’t cope.

Despite this situation, it seems that the two entities are planning on shifting some of the already stretched production figures by getting into the export business.

The BMW 5 Series they make in China will be exported to some other markets in Asia that are neighboring the People’s republic.

No certain market was announced and no other model than the BMW 5 Series long wheelbase form was confirmed for export but we do know when it starts.

BMW and Brilliance will begin exporting their F10 5 Series as early as next month and confirmation of the entire affair comes from Christoph Stark, the CEO of BMW Group Region China.

The next thing BMW may be doing in China is build engines and in their case it’s almost certain that they will be headed for export in their majority.

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Marcus M.

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The post BMW to export Chinese built 5 Series appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

China is a very big market and there is no doubt about that but some parts of the Chinese market can be profitable with what vehicles would otherwise be niche products.

This is definitely the case for that region of China where stretched long-wheelbase vehicles are popular, so aiming for the popularity crown obtained by the Audi A4L, the Bavarians over at BMW have got a new version of the 3 Series under works.

The “new” car will be built at a new factory in the economic region of Shengyang which is destined to open its gates somewhere in 2012. That new production facility will see to the birth of this long wheelbase version of the BMW 3 Series but to other, more traditional, BMW products such as the BMW X1. The factory will have a capacity to produce somewhere in the region of 100,000 units a year.

The lengthened version of the BMW 3 Series and this plant will not be built by BMW themselves but by their local partners, Brilliance. With the help of Brilliance the Germans hope that their alliance will account for 300.000 units sold yearly in China which is a raise of 60 percent when compared to their present situation.

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Marcus M.

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