BMW and Mercedes Still Sitting in a Tree, Deal Almost Completed

The deal between BMW and Mercedes is almost completed, although rumors concerning a potential agreement for sharing development platforms and/or car parts reached the web almost one year ago. According to Autonews, BMW's official confirmed the deal in a interview with the German magazine auto motor und sport, but no official statement signed by the two companies was released.

The deal between BMW and Mercedes would be mostly based on sharing car parts that do not affect the brand image, including engine components and probably development platforms (even if they may slightly affect the exterior look of the vehicles).

Although they repeatedly denied an agreement, the two companies confirmed the negotiations but refused to give more details on the parts to be shared as part of the deal. “Both sides have confirmed they were in talks about boosting their purchasing power for common parts that are not critical to brand image, but neither had said publicly that an agreement had been achieved,” Autonews wrote.

"The use of economies of scale is successively being implemented. We do not need to wait for a model change or official announcements,” BMW development chief Klaus Draeger was quoted as saying. However, a BMW spokesman denied the article and refused to comment on the rumors. “There has been progress made but the talks are still continuing and there is no joint purchasing of parts yet,” he said according to Autonews.

Mercedes and BMW already signed an agreement with General Motors for a hybrid platform so a potential deal between the two German companies would not represent such an amazing deal, but more a forward step for both of them.