According to a report out of the Beijing Youth Daily, BMW will team up with its Chinese partner Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. to develop a new electric vehicle based on the 5-Series platform. BMW and Brilliance are tied in a joint-venture, which currently builds the 5-Series sedan, as well as the long-wheelbase variant, in Shenyang, a city in China’s northeast.
The newspaper goes on to report that a concept version of the new electric vehicle will be unveiled later this year at one of the major auto shows in China.
This strategy is different to BMW’s global electric vehicle plans, which involve trial phases with electric versions of entry-level models like the MINI Cooper and 1-Series. In fact, the next stage of BMW’s electric vehicle program in the U.S. is scheduled to commence this summer, with residents in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, the Greater San Francisco and Sacramento areas, Connecticut and Boston all able to sign up to participate in trials for the 1-Series ActiveE electric car.
[Beijing Youth Daily via Automotive News]
