BMW rubbishes Tesla collaboration claims

Elon Musk recently did what Elon Musk does best and got people talking. This time it was about a possible collaboration between Tesla and BMW, specifically around batteries and light-weight composite technologies. Given Tesla’s position in the electric car space and BMW’s renewed focus on electric, it’s something that didn’t seem a million miles away from being plausible. According to those in the know in Munich however, it’s a load of crock.

Speaking to German-language publication Wirtschafts Woche, unnamed officials at BMW said that the talks with Musk carried minimal significance and the Silicon Valley tech genius had only talked them up for the sake of PR.

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They went on to tell the publication that Musk had hyped up the BMW talks in a bid to mask the manufacturer’s failed relationships with Toyota and Daimler.

As Car and Driver notes, Tesla spokesperson Kathrin Schira told Automotive News last week that the car-maker’s conversations with BMW were entirely casual.

Still, BMW’s response was far more vitriolic than you’d usually get to questions around these kinds of collaboration. If the auto world was like high school, it’d be analogous to BMW accusing Tesla of spreading false rumors about the two of them having “like totally flirted” behind the bike sheds last Friday.