Today's Financial Times Deutschland newspaper makes the claim that German carmaker BMW is locked in talks with Fiat and General Motors to supply engines and gearboxes to its two rivals.

Today's Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) newspaper makes the claim that BMW is in talks with Fiat and General Motors to supply its powertrains to its two manufacturing rivals. In a lengthy article in today's edition, FTD quotes sources within the companies involved for its information.

The newspaper believes that BMW, which also owns the MINI brand, is looking to sell its engines and transmissions to other carmakers in order to spread its own production costs out as it tries to meet its shareholders' publicly stated desire for increased profitability from the prestige German brand which is one of the smaller European groups.

These new talks come alongside discussions BMW is holding over smaller platform sharing with domestic rival Mercedes-Benz, with FTD sources saying that BMW is somewhat frustrated by the lack of headway it is making in this area. Fiat has also been involved in its own talks with Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG about smaller architecture sharing although these discussions are thought to have made little progress.

FTD suggests in today's report that BMW's advanced engine and gearbox technology could be of great interest to its rivals and any reduction in its production costs would be deemed very useful, especially in light of the major funding it needs to spend to meet forthcoming EU emission legislation. FTD speculates that GM could be interested in BMW's 4- and 6-cylinder engines. It also further suggests that the talks with Fiat would most likely be centring around technology relevant to the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands.