BMW Will Use More Generic Parts And Fewer Bespoke Ones
by Adrian Padeanu · BMWBLOGArticle Summary
- BMW plans to make standardized parts the largest share of its roughly €80 billion annual purchasing budget by 2032.
- BMW argues that using generic parts doesn't have to mean lower quality or less premium cars.
- BMW says the strategy will help it build cars more efficiently while keeping quality, performance, and the brand’s identity intact.
BMW is looking to take a page from the Chinese automotive industry’s playbook as it tries to become more competitive. The German automaker plans to significantly increase its use of standardized, off-the-shelf components instead of developing bespoke parts for every model. The goal is simple: cut costs, speed up development, and improve profit margins without compromising what makes a BMW a BMW.
It might not sound particularly exciting, but parts sharing could become a major part of BMW’s strategy. The company expects standardized components to account for the largest share of its roughly €80 billion annual purchasing budget by 2032. At the same time, BMW plans to cut its use of bespoke components in half.
The idea is hardly new. Automakers already share plenty of components, including sensors, electronic modules, and mechanical parts such as transmissions. The difference is that BMW wants to lean much more heavily on components that suppliers develop to industry standards and sell to multiple automakers.
BMW Saves Money, Time, And R&D Effort
That brings economies of scale. If a supplier can sell the same component to several car companies rather than building a unique part exclusively for BMW, it can produce significantly higher volumes and reduce the cost per unit. BMW also saves money by not spending its own time and resources engineering every component from scratch.
Milan Nedeljkovic, BMW’s new CEO, apparently sees little reason to reinvent the wheel when somebody else has already made a perfectly good one: “There are industrial standards on the market which are convincing, and it would be wrong not to use them.”
BMW insists this doesn’t mean its cars will suddenly become automotive Lego sets. The company says using more standardized components won’t hurt quality, performance, or its brand identity.
The push for standardized parts is less about penny-pinching and more about closing the cost gap with Chinese automakers. Chinese brands have become increasingly efficient by sharing components across brands and models, allowing them to develop vehicles faster and sell them at competitive prices. BMW is now trying to capture some of those advantages without abandoning the premium positioning that allows it to charge more in the first place.
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BMW Is Cost-Cutting In Other Areas
This is just one piece of a much greater cost-cutting effort. BMW recently outlined plans to reduce the number of model variants, eliminate the 2 Series Active Tourer with no successor, and cut divisions and related management positions by 20% by mid-2027.
China is also getting its own version of the efficiency treatment. BMW wants to locally produce and tailor at least 95% of the cars it sells in China by 2030. The company is also considering exporting Chinese-built vehicles to other Southeast Asian markets.
None of this means your next 3 Series will suddenly have a random logo-free headlight or bargain-bin switchgear. If BMW gets this right, the changes should be largely invisible from behind the wheel. And that’s probably the point: BMW wants to strip costs from its cars without making customers feel like anything has been stripped from them.
As long as reliability and quality don’t have to suffer, is it really a cause for concern?
Source: Automotive News
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