BMW and Daimler Joint Venture to Make EV

Two German luxury car manufacturer, Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) and Daimler – the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, will be teamed up to develop the EV (electric vehicle). In addition to lower cost, cooperation is carried out in order to design a space-efficient electric vehicles and safe, more affordable, more efficient electric car. So far, this two companies known as a rival in the premium car segment.

Visio.M Electric Vehicle base from MUTE prototype-front side. (Picture from: http://www.caradvice.com.au/)

Citing Car Advice site pages, BMW is leading the project with codenamed "Visio.M". Cooperation projects worth U.S. $ 13.8 million or equivalent to Rp. 128 billion, it involves the Technical University Munich as well as 15 private manufacturing companies and associations in Germany. The project fund came from the German Ministry of Research and Education.

The German government also gave the other provisions in the project Visio.M. Daimler and BMW are given permission to modify MUTE the electric car prototype that was developed by several universities. The car was first shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2011.

Visio.M Electric Vehicle rear side. (Picture from: http://www.caradvice.com.au/)

Visio.M project aims to create an electric vehicle according to the regulation of fuel emissions and energy use of the European Union. EV engines BMW and Daimler plan is designed to be able to generate 15 kilowatts of power and weighs up to 400 kilograms (880 pounds) without batteries, and a top speed of less than 50 mph means that the vehicle would fit into European regulatory category L7e -- otherwise known as heavy quadricycles. 

Cockpit of Visio.M Electric Vehicle. (Picture from: http://www.caradvice.com.au/)

Essentially smaller than a highway-capable cars but more powerful than most neighborhood electric vehicles, heavy quadricycles can be driven in some European countries without a drivers’ license, and can be driven on all roads but the fastest freeways.  

Visio.M Electric Vehicle test drive. (Picture from: http://www.caradvice.com.au/)

Heavy quadricycles are not required to undergo the same rigorous crash-testing that full-size cars are, but BMW has said that it expects Visio.M to deliver the same level of passenger safety offered by conventional combustion-engined cars.  

BMW and Daimler will be looking for different features technological innovations before mass production. Currently, BMW and Daimler have developed an electric vehicle technology respectively. BMW has 13 city car on sale in 2013. Daimler produces the E-Cell system (power cells) for the Mercedes E-Cell cars to be launched in the near future. *** [CAR ADVICE | GREEN CAR REPORTS | FERY FIRMANSYAH | KORAN TEMPO 3874]