Nokia has made quite a buzz with its special HERE Maps program for the last couple of months, undetermined whether to let it go to BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler, but after intense and tough negotiations, the program ended up into the pocket of the three important players in the auto industry.

Thus, BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler acquired Nokia`s HERE Maps for a whopping $2.71 billion. The three players will offer the navigation system to other car makers, such as Renault, Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot or Toyota, free of charge.

Nokia is quite on a tight spot and the $2.71 billion profit would make it rise from the ashes and develop other technologies that would satisfy the needs of other important carmakers.

On the other hand, the three major auto players will continue developing the HERE Maps navigation system and perhaps sell it to the highest bidders.

BMW, Volkswagen and Daimler are the lucky winners of the world`s most important navigation system, with Baidu, Facebook, Uber and Alibaba failing to purchase the program, due to the $4 billion asking price that Nokia pretended.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW Shares Nokia HERE Maps with Volkswagen and Daimler appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

With the growing industry of electric cars, an increase in demand of more car fast-charging sites all over the United States was inevitable, so BMW and Volkswagen have recently partnered ChargerPoint to decide the future of charging services.

The partnership between the network operator ChargePoint and the two major carmakers involve the building of more than 100 fast-charging station sites from one coast to another, meaning a complex network, which goes all the way from Boston to Washington, expanding to Interstate 95 and reaching the West Coasts via San Francisco, Los Angeles, as well as San Diego.

But who would actually benefit the ChargePoint station sites apart the BMW i3 electric and the Volkswagen e-Golf? Well, apart from the two electric vehicles, the Chevrolet Spark EV will also benefit these charging stations. To make things easier, these stations will be stationed every 50 miles, so if your car`s mile range is under 100 miles, this should prove very effective.

Every site will come with a 50-kilowatt DC fast chargers or “24-kW DC Combo fast chargers with the SAE Combo connector,” with the possibility of recharging your i3 in 30 minutes at a 24-kW station, or less, in just 20 minutes, at a 50-kW charging station.

In case you were wondering when will construction start, you should know that there are areas, like San Diego, where a charging station is almost ready, with the rest of the 100 stations to be finished until the end of 2015.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW & Volkswagen Partner ChargePoint for More Car Fast-Charging Station Sites appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

According to the 6th annual Automotive News Europe/SupplierBusiness OEM-Supplier Relations Study the Bavarians at BMW AG are the automaker that most suppliers want to do business with.

This new survey shows that BMW rose to the top spot which if you consider that last year it ranked fifth.

VW was found to be the carmaker that applies the most pressure to drop the prices. BMW is trailed by Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen brand.

Toyota was the winner last year but due to the impact of the over 8.5 million vehicles being recalled over safety risks such as unintended acceleration and poor braking.

BMW’s feat of rising to the top can be seen as quite a turnaround. BMW has been slipping in this category since 2007, which is when BMW head of purchasing Herbert Diess was ordered to cut 4 billion euros the equivalent of $5.7 billion in costs by 2012.

Either way the recent progress at BMW is one that’s quite notable, even despite announcements of them joining forces with Mercedes to keep supplier costs in check. On a sidenote, VW was found to be the carmaker that applies the most pressure to drop the prices.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW is the automaker that most suppliers want to do business with appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

The technology being demonstrated this week by BMW and Volkswagen in Germany is what resulted from a government funded project.

That would be what the two companies have been at work on for the past four years, the Adaptive and Cooperative Technologies for Intelligent Traffic (AKTIV) project.

AKTIV includes a group of German automakers, suppliers and communications companies to develop and test systems that will improve traffic flow, safety and fuel efficiency. In order to achieve these improvements BMW and VW have been hard at work and the cars involved in this project have been bundled with various technology such as cameras, radar and laser sensors.

All of these are developed to automatically brake the vehicle to prevent collisions and to warn the driver of pedestrians or vehicles coming from around a corner.

The Bavarians over at BMW has even incorporated the communications systems into motorcycles to allow riders to be more aware.

With the Active Safety project, the experts from BMW Forschung und Technik GmbH have made an important contribution to improving road traffic safety. In addition, specialists from the BMW Group brought to the Traffic Management project their insights about smooth traffic flow and developed innovative navigation functions. Also, in dialogue with industry specialists, they established the basis for acceptance and implementation of the road traffic technologies and applications.

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Marcus M.

http://www.bmwcoop.com

The post BMW and Volkswagen demonstrate safety technology appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.