On June 18th, 2013, a grand ceremony was held inMian Yang to celebrate the launch of Blue Sky project by Power XinChen toproduce BMW’s N20 engines.
The project owes its origin to the company’s“Treasure Hunting” strategy in 2010 that paved the way for its cooperation with BMW. It was called Blue Sky because the codename invokes associations of beingclean and eco-friendly and happens to coincide with BMW’s iconic blue-and-whitelogo.
On November 7th, 2011, a high-level visit by the Chairman and President ofBrilliance Qi Yumin, Chairman of BMW Brilliance Wu Xiaoan to BMW’s headquartersin Munich made support of Power XinChen part of the German premium carmaker’sbroader aid program for Brilliance. Attention and assistance from several Sichuangovernment dignitaries and top management of Wu liangye also played a key rolein making BMW decide to put N20 production in Mian Yang.
The two sides finalizedthe idea with a formal agreement in Munich on December 12th,2012, allowing the Chinese company to produce N20 engines and main enginecomponents in Mian Yang. The deal also includes provision of personnel trainingand technical consulting onprocess planning, formulation of quality standards andequipment installation.
The cooperation ushered in anew period of bilateral relationship between BMW and Brilliance. In aninterview conducted on May 18th with the online outlet of People’s Daily, theChairman of BMW group Norbert Reithofer remarked, “BMW is continuing tostrengthen cooperation with our Chinese partner Brilliance Group and now several support programs are activelyunderway including sending professional expert teams to help with developmentof Brilliance Auto and assist its engine-making arm Power XinChen in producingour engines for exclusive use in Brilliance vehicles. We believe thosecooperative efforts will bring mutual benefits to both parties.”
The N20 licensed production marks the first time for BMWin its hundred-year history to allow an outside player to produce itsmuch-praised engines and it also sets a precedent for a Chinese engine OEM toperform deep cooperation with an international industry leader. As manyindustry watchers observed, the project, if successful, will certainly elevatePower XinChen’s technical and management competencies to a higher level andprovide new momentum to the development of China’s auto industry.
P.S. N20 is an in-line four-cylinder turbocharged engineknown to be BMW’s flagship product whose smooth power delivery, instantthrottle response and great fuel economy make it one of the best in its class. From2012 to 2013, the engine was ranked among Ward’s 10 Best Engines for twostraight times by Ward’s Autoworld magazine, a prominent industry watcher.
