Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r
Carbon fiber??? wut?
Fuel cell? Honda comes to mind there, not Toyota.
This is interesting, I thought BMW was partnering with some other people for hybrid stuff.
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yes carbon fiber! BMW bought part of SGL so they can manufacture carbon fiber faster and cheaper. toyota would definitely want in on that. they built their own loom for the LF-A, but that isnt something you use to pound out millions of parts with. their strategic partnership with BMW is both for technology and for sporty "street cred" so to speak.
yes fuel cell! toyota had been all in on gas hybrids and so they havent really pushed for fuel cell tech... until recently. they are already testing fuel cell vehicles and fuel cell hybrids. and their recent concepts have been fuel cells in addition to hybrids. so when the largest manufacturer in the world sets its sights on fuel cells, BMW is gonna want in on that. of course the hybrid tech as well.
both will jointly develop better battery tech and toyota will be buying diesels from bmw. this was the earlier agreement.
bmw had partnered with GM on the 2 mode/active hybrid system. but that was a bust. the X6 active hybrid was a joke. conceptually 2 mode is "better" than HSD in some ways, but in reality, nobody has made it work in a mainstream vehicle. perhaps its physically too large and relegated to trucks/suvs? and how many people buy hybrid trucks/suvs? gm has moved on to the volt's voltec system anyways and bmw just uses the ZF developed hybrid system like all the germans do.