PSA Peugeot Citroen's recent alliance with General Motors is threatening to derail a joint venture the French automaker has with German luxo car-maker BMW AG.  BMW issued a statement yesterday saying, "The conditions of the joint venture have changed through the changed shareholder structure at PSA."  BMW is referring to the 7% stake that G.M. took in the French automaker last February.

When announced in October 2011, the partners said they planed to invest more than 100 million euro in the venture and establish a new Research & Development Center in Munich where about 400 people - mostly engineers - would work.  EV components developed and designed at the center would be manufactured at a facility in Mulhouse, France, where eventually another 250 employees would work in manufacturing.  The venture was planned to develop and produce components for EV powertrains ranging from high-voltage batteries, electric motors, generators, power electronics, loading units and energy management software.  The j-v was expected to save each company as much as $1 billion annually by 2017.

All of that appears to be in doubt right now as BMW said it would pursue the business on its own, regardless of the changes at PSA.  But BMW has said that it is interested in buying its partner out of the j-v, primarily because of its alliance with G.M., but perhaps also with concerns for PSA's financial condition, which is tenuous. 

According to reports, the BMW-PSA j-v, operating as BMW Peugeot Citroen Electrification, has already established the R&D center in Munich, although it's not known how many engineers are employed there at this time.  The manufacturing base for the venture at Mulhouse is reported to be preparing to begin manufacturing in 2015.