Peugeot Confirms end of Hybrids Venture with BMW
French auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen (IW 1000/47) confirmed on Monday that it was no longer collaborating with German luxury carmaker BMW (IW 1000/36) on a venture to develop hybrid vehicle technology.
"This cooperation will not go on, there will be no jointly developed products," Peugeot head of research and development Guillaume Faury told journalists.
"We'll continue what we started separately and there'll be no joint production site," he added.
BMW said in June that it was reconsidering the joint venture in light of a deal between the French carmaker and U.S. giant General Motors (IW 500/4), while Peugeot did not release a statement on the issue then.
BMW and Peugeot had already collaborated for over a decade in developing petrol engines when they announced in February 2011 that they would extend their partnership to hybrid technology.
They invested $129 million dollars in the venture, but Peugeot's alliance with GM early this year "changed the joint venture's conditions," a BMW spokeswoman had said.
When asked whether Peugeot would now collaborate with General Motors on the hybrid technology, Faury said "it's the sort of thing we're studying with them."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
