BMW, Daimler Extend Linkup to Include Joint Development of Car-Seat Frames

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Daimler AG, the world’s two largest luxury-car manufacturers, will extend their cooperation on joint development and purchasing to include car-seat frames to lower costs.

The cooperation is part of a joint-purchasing program between Munich-based BMW and Daimler in Stuttgart, Daimler spokesman Florian Martens said in a telephone interview today. The carmakers may save 150 million euros ($194 million) to 200 million euros each a year if the seats are used across all models, BMW spokesman Frank Wienstroth said.

BMW will reach its goal of cutting spending on components and supplies by 4 billion euros by 2012, Herbert Diess, the company’s head of purchasing, said in May. Daimler announced in April it’s sharing development costs, engines and small-car technologies with the Renault-Nissan alliance to generate a total of 4 billion euros in savings and revenue over five years.

“We’re constantly looking for joint projects that make sense,” BMW’s Wienstroth said. He declined to give details on other components on which the carmakers are cooperating.

BMW fell 23.5 cents, or 0.6 percent, to 41.76 euros at 11:02 a.m. in Frankfurt trading. Daimler added 19.5 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 42.68 euros.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt at crahn2@bloomberg.net

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