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BMW, GM and DaimlerChrysler tie up to develop hybrid engines
Detroit : BMW along with General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG will join up in a joint effort to develop fuel-saving hybrid engines, the companies announced Wednesday.

Munich, Germany-based BMW Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with GM and DaimlerChrysler and expects to finalize the agreement later this year. GM and DaimlerChrysler finalized their own hybrid partnership last month, under which GM will be the lead designer of hybrid engines for rear-wheel and all-wheel-drive, full-size trucks and sport-utility vehicles, front-wheel-drive cars and crossover vehicles. DaimlerChrysler will be the lead designer of hybrid engines for rear-wheel-drive luxury cars.

A GM official said that automakers are considering adding more companies to the hybrid partnership. According to a BMW official the creation of a shared technology platform for hybrid drives would allow the companies to more quickly integrate the best technologies on the market.

In a two-mode hybrid system, a vehicle can be powered either by two electric motors or by the combustion engine, or the systems can be used simultaneously. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. now dominate the two-mode hybrid market. Ford Motor Co. also sells two sport-utility vehicles that use the technology.

Hybrid vehicles represented less than one percent of U.S. sales last year, but they doubled from the year before to a total of 83,153.
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