Why are more and more car companies teaming up?
DE When BMW and Daimler announced a €1bn (£880m) partnership last week to develop a suite of "mobility services" together, it was a clear sign of how the auto industry had changed.
Dienstag 10 Juli 2018
DE For one thing, the German giants - who plan to work on driverless vehicles, ride-hailing and pay-per-use cars together - are normally fierce rivals who would never dream of teaming up.
For another, their pact was just the latest in a growing line of partnerships between traditional carmakers who are preparing for an uncertain future, in which next-generation technology could upend the industry and Silicon Valley could hold more sway than Detroit or Wolfsburg.
Just recently Ford and Volkswagen agreed to "investigate" waysHonda invested $2.75bn (£2.1bn) in rival General Motors' driverless unit
There have been similar tie-ups between Tesla and Daimler, and Volvo and PSA, as well as a host of pacts between carmakers and tech firms.
What is going on? "Nobody knows what the future of mobility is going to be exactly, so people are getting together to lower the risk," says Prof Peter Wells, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff Business School. He expects electric cars, ride sharing and autonomous driving to radically change how we use cars, eventually prompting a fall in car ownership.
Why you have (probably) already bought your last car China powers up electric car market BMW and Daimler invest €1bn in tech venture So traditional carmakers are having to fight to remain relevant, particularly as tech companies like ride-hailing firm Uber and Google's driverless car business Waymo overtake them.
"The research and development to develop these new technologies also costs billions, so it makes sense to share the burden rather than duplicating," Prof Wells says. "The problem for the industry is that it is struggling to afford its own future."
