Love Trains: A Guide to Automaker Partnerships

As safety requirements and fuel-economy concerns loom ever larger in automotive development, the company that effectively deploys the most useful, accessible, and innovative technology  wins. So cutthroat is the car business that Volkswagen—currently No. 3 in global sales but with stronger financial reserves than many competitors—says it will invest $86 billion in research and development through 2016. For companies with less cash on hand, one way to keep up is to partner with another maker. The potential benefits are seductive: shared R&D costs; access to new technologies, platforms, and component sets; entry into new markets; and, in some cases, just a big ol' pile of greenbacks, euro, or yuan. At the top of the "cons" ­ledger, though, sits financial ruin. It cost General Motors $2 billion in 2005 to unwind a failed tie-up with Fiat. (more…) from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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