Strategic and cultural barriers are too great.
on the Economic Observer Network “Hunting the wind and catching shadows.”
The partnership between BMW and the Great Wall was reached last July.
In February 2018, the two parties signed a letter of intent for cooperation and officially announced the establishment of the joint venture company “Spotlight Automotive” on July 10 of the same year, with the goal of producing pure electric vehicle MINI Rocketman. This is BMW’s first pure electric vehicle joint venture project in the world. The total investment in this cooperation is 5.1 billion yuan, and each party holds 50%.
There was also a about MINI Rocketman time to market last month. News, Beam Motors’ OEMs are located in Jiangsu Province, where the company is registered, with a planned production capacity of 160,000 vehicles per year, and Rocketman is expected to be listed as soon as possible in 2022.
There has not been officially put into production, and the cooperation has reached a stalemate, mainly because of the conflicts between the strategic perspectives of BMW and the Great Wall. BMW does not want to make any concessions on quality and safety standards, and their Chinese partner Great Wall Motor’s goal is to achieve cost-effective production, which may lead to higher-than-expected actual costs. “In order to meet BMW’s own standards, greater investment is necessary, and this is one of the current differences between the two companies,” the report said.
The original cooperation seems to be a win-win situation. The BMW’s calculation is to share the cost and joint venture into China. The Great Wall has long produced a single SUV and its layout in the new energy field is slow. Both product and technology have the need to upgrade. At the same time, the cooperation with BMW is also obvious to enhance the brand’s influence, which can help the internationalization of the Great Wall.
In the current environment where car companies are generally short of money, BMW’s financial pressure has forced it to re-evaluate the input-output ratio of the project. In addition to investing money, BMW also needs to export technology and support the internationalization of the Great Wall. When the actual benefits are not expected, the promotion of cooperation will become difficult.
At the same time, BMW’s recent coaching change has also brought uncertainty to the joint venture project. Former CEO Kruger, who just retired last month,is considered too conservative The wavering strategic route has made BMW miss the best time to develop electric cars. During his tenure, BMW’s business performance was not satisfactory. The new CEO, Qi Pu Ce, was placed to lead the transformation of BMW, and then BMW will inevitably have a series of strategic adjustments. The uncertainty of this transitional period of course also includes cooperation with the Great Wall.