IT News on October 6th: According to a report by bmwblog today, in order to cut costs and improve efficiency, BMW plans to significantly increase the use of standardized parts in its vehicle manufacturing process.

To enhance its competitiveness, BMW is seeking to learn from the development strategies of China's automotive industry. This German automaker plans to significantly increase the adoption rate of standardized, in-stock parts, and will no longer develop dedicated parts for each individual model. Its goal is very clear: to reduce costs, speed up the R&D cycle, and improve profit margins while maintaining the core brand values of BMW.

The company expects that by 2032, standardized parts will account for the largest share of its annual procurement budget of approximately 8 billion euros (Note from IT: the current exchange rate is about 602.316 billion yuan). At the same time, BMW plans to reduce the use of specialized parts by half.

Major automobile manufacturers have already been widely sharing components, including sensors, electronic control modules, and mechanical parts such as transmissions. The key difference is that BMW plans to rely more heavily on standard components developed by suppliers according to industry-wide standards and supplied to multiple car companies simultaneously.

BMW's new Chief Executive Officer, Milan Nedeljkovic ( Milan Nedeljkovi ć), stated: "There are already very mature and trustworthy industry standards in the market, and it would be an extremely wrong decision to ignore them."

BMW emphasizes that this in no way means that its models will suddenly degenerate into a "Lego-like assembly of modular components." The company states that increasing the use of standardized parts will not compromise product quality, mechanical performance, or BMW's inherent brand identity.

The standardization of components is just one part of BMW's broader efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency. BMW has recently announced several plans, including streamlining derivative versions of its models, discontinuing the 2 Series Active Tourer model without any subsequent iterations, and reducing the staffing of relevant business departments and management positions by 20% by mid-2027.

For the Chinese market, BMW has also introduced specialized efficiency improvement plans. BMW aims to ensure that by 2030, at least 95% of the vehicles it sells in China are produced locally and have undergone dedicated adaptation and research and development. In addition, the company is also evaluating the feasibility of exporting models produced at its Chinese factories to other Southeast Asian markets.