Chinese Carmaker Seeking to Buy DaimlerChrysler and BMW Engine Plant.

Yannis

Chinese Carmaker Seeking to Buy DaimlerChrysler and BMW Engine Plant

A major Chinese carmaker, the Lifan Group, is bidding to buy from DaimlerChrysler and BMW a car engine plant in Brazil, the New York Times reported.

The report says the company wants to take the engine plant apart, piece by piece, transport it halfway around the globe and put it back together again in Chongqing in southwest China.

If the purchase succeeds — and it is early in the process — China could leapfrog competitors like South Korea to catch up with Japan, Germany and the United States in selling some of the most fuel-efficient yet comfortable cars on the market, like the Honda Civic or the Toyota Corolla, the New York Times said.

The failure of China to develop its own version of sophisticated, reliable engines has been the biggest technical obstacle facing Chinese automakers as they modernize and prepare to export to the United States and Europe, the report quoted Western auto executives and analysts as saying.

The engine plant is one of the most famous and unusual in the auto industry. Built in southern Brazil in the late 1990's at a cost of $500 million by a 50-50 joint venture of Chrysler and BMW, the Campo Largo factory combines the latest American and German technology to produce the 1.6-liter, 16-valve Tritec engine, according to the New York Times report.

Trevor Hale, a DaimlerChrysler spokesman, and Marc Hassinger, a Bayerische Motoren Werke spokesman, each said separately that their companies were assessing their options for when their joint venture legal agreement expires at the end of next year, but that it was premature to provide details, according to the report.

Mr. Yin and spokesmen from DaimlerChrysler and BMW declined to comment on the price under negotiation for the factory, the report said.

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