AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/03 Report--

On April 2, BMW Group and India's Tata Technology Company (Tata Technologies) jointly announced the signing of a cooperation agreement to form a joint venture with a 50:50 stake.

As of press time, the two sides have not disclosed the specific financial details of the cooperation agreement. At present, the establishment and operation of the joint venture company have yet to be examined and approved by the relevant departments, and the details of the cooperation have yet to be announced.

According to official data, the joint venture has 100 employees, but BMW says the number of employees in the joint venture is likely to grow rapidly to four figures in the next few years. Under the agreement, the joint venture will operate in Bangalore and Pune, India, and become part of BMW's global software business and IT hub network. After its establishment, the company will develop functions such as autopilot software, infotainment systems and digital services, including the digitization and automation of product research and development and production. In short, the joint venture will develop automotive software for the BMW Group, including software-defined automotive solutions.

The partnership is the first between Tata Technology and BMW Group. for the establishment of the joint venture, Tata Technology said the joint venture will develop functions such as autopilot software and dashboard systems. In addition, the senior vice president of BMW Group Software Architecture said that the cooperation with Tata Technologies will accelerate progress in the field of software-defined vehicles, where there are a large number of software talents in India. developing vehicle software for the BMW Group means using state-of-the-art technology. Another BMW executive also said that the establishment of a joint venture is the advantage of BMW Group's global layout, and BMW Group will also use it to expand its business in India.

In this regard, industry insiders believe that the joint venture between BMW Group and India's Tata Technology marks the further layout of BMW in the field of software development.

In fact, a number of global automakers and auto parts manufacturers have set up software development centers in India, including Volvo and Magna International and so on. In addition, companies including Toyota and Mercedes-Benz have also increased investment in India to increase production. The head of Toyota Kroska Motor Co., a joint venture between Toyota and Kroska Group in India, said on April 3 that it plans to expand its annual production in India from the current 320000 vehicles to 445000 vehicles by 2026, the Financial Associated Press reported.

Data show that Tata Motors is a subsidiary of India's Tata Group, founded in 1945, accounts for more than half of the Indian market share, is also India's highest revenue automaker, and Tata Technology is its subsidiary, providing engineering and technical services to automotive, aviation and heavy machinery companies, including Honda, Ford and Airbus. In November 2023, Tata Technology went public and became the first subsidiary of Tata Group to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) in nearly 20 years.

On April 1st, India's Tata Motors released sales figures showing that it sold 90822 vehicles in the Indian market in March 2024, compared with 89351 in the same period last year, up 1.65% from a year earlier.

As for BMW Group, which is a well-known global automaker, BMW Group officials said that BMW Group started its own automotive software development more than 20 years ago, and has since continued to expand its global development team network of automotive software and commercial IT solutions. IT and software centers in Germany, the United States, South Africa, India, Portugal (joint venture key technology plants) and China (Lingyue Digital IT Co., Ltd. And BA Technology plants) have been strengthening their software expertise for several years. BMW Group and its global joint ventures currently have more than 9400 people engaged in IT and software development, and the company will continue to improve its skills based on demand.

Of course, as a global luxury brand, BMW Group focuses more on China than the Indian market, which has become the largest single market of BMW Group in the world. In recent years, BMW has invested heavily in the field of electric vehicles in the Chinese market and accelerated the electrification transformation. In the past 2023, BMW has launched five all-electric models in China, including the BMW iX, BMW i4, BMW iX3, BMW i3 and BMW i7, covering almost all car consumer segments. In addition, in addition to brilliance BMW, BMW Group also has another joint venture in the Chinese market, Beam Automobile Co., Ltd., which was established in December 2019. Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. and BMW (Holland) Holdings each own 50% of the joint venture company, of which BMW (Holland) Holdings is the actual controller. At present, the first volume production car "MINI COOPER" has been declared by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is expected to be listed by the end of this year.

It is worth mentioning that although BMW occupies a large market share in the luxury market, BMW's luxury car advantage is difficult to show in the new era of new energy vehicles. Data show that in 2023, BMW Group delivered 2.555 million new cars worldwide, an increase of 6.5% over the same period last year, of which more than 375000 pure electric vehicles were delivered, an increase of 74.2% over the same period last year. In the Chinese market, BMW Group delivered 825000 new cars in China, up 4.2% from a year earlier, of which about 100000 pure electric vehicles were delivered, a year-on-year increase of more than 1.3 times.

For BMW, to maintain its position as a pioneer in the industry and lay down a territory in China's highly competitive electric market still has a long way to go. On April 3, BMW Group officially announced the lineup of exhibitors at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show. BMW Group BMW and MINI will unveil in Beijing with the strongest product lineup in history, including BMW's new generation concept car, the new pure electric BMW i4, MINI's first pure electric crossover model MINI ACEMAN, and so on, ranging from entry-level to large-scale luxury, minority personality to performance models.

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