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Daimler, BMW, Audi consortium nabs Nokia maps for $2.72B

A consortium of German automakers made up of Daimler, BMW, and Audi has reportedly banded together to buy Nokia's Here mapping division for the equivalent of about $2.7 billion. The particulars of the deal aren't yet official but could be announced at the end of July. Reuters claims that this info comes from anonymous insiders speaking to Manager Magazin in Germany. It might be too soon, however, to declare a buyer. Reuters also spoke to two other insiders, and they said that no deal has been completed yet. None of the firms involved has officially spoken about the negotiations. Some of the other bidders for the division have reportedly bowed out. Here is a high-definition digital mapping company that controls about 70 percent of the auto market. The company has a fleet of vehicles with cameras and LIDAR (pictured above) to generate all of the necessary information. It also partners with trucking companies to use their GPS data. Nokia started looking for potential buyers for Here earlier this year. Tech giants that reportedly included Uber and Apple were rumored to be interested, while German automakers also teamed up to submit a joint bid in part to protect their access to the maps. On paper, Here is only valued at around $785 million, but a sale in the billions now seems assured. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Nokia Here Earnings/Financials Audi BMW Technology here nokia here

Daily Driver: 2016 BMW X1

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2016 BMW X1, reviewed by Alex Kierstein. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. And don't forget to watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00 ]Hey, everybody. I'm Senior Editor Alex Kierstein and today we're driving the 2016 BMW X1. It's replacing the old X1 and the old X1 was based on BMW's traditional rear-wheel drive platform. That meant the engine was positioned longitudinally, that's north/south in the engine bay. In this application, we've got a transversely mounted turbo charged inline four, making 228 horsepower. [00:00:30] It displaces 2.0 liters and it's part of BMW's new modular engine family. It's a nice engine. It's smooth. It sounds good and it's got a lot of power. This is a little lighter than the previous car. This one weighs 3,660 pounds versus the old X1's 3800 and some change. It's a little bit lighter. The dimensions aren't that much different. If you're wondering why it got smaller, that's because it's using a platform [00:01:00] shared with a lot of BMW's Mini products. This is really the fruition of BMW's investment in the Mini brand because now they're able to use those platforms in the engines they developed for those models in BMWs. This X1 has an 8-speed automatic transmission and it's really a pretty good trans. It kicks down quickly if you call for it to give you some power and for the most part it's smooth and kind of out of your way. [00:01:30] Where Minis are sort of raucous when you really whomp in it, this is a little more restrained. It still delivers power like many of the current turbocharged Minis out there, but there's more refinement here. I really like the external styling on this car. It's wearing this really lovely shade of dark blue and BMW's current styling language lends itself really well to this shape [00:02:00]. It looks really tidy and it's not really that complex or interesting of a shape. It's very much the traditional two-box CUV kind of exterior look and profile, but the detailing is nice. It looks sharp. It looks like a premium product and it looks like a more expensive product than a similar Mini would. BMW used to pride themselves on having simple uncluttered interfaces and even the sort of trimmed down iDrive that's in this unit [00:02:30]. Works pretty well.

Mini has become the Rover that BMW always wanted

BMW has been working for 20 years to build a successful line of British cars, and on the evidence of the second-generation Mini Clubman, it may have finally done it. That means it's time for all of us to get used to the fact that Minis aren't going to be that small anymore. Case in point is this new Mini Clubman, introduced last month and conspicuous by its size. Many of us who've pointed to BMW's stewardship of Mini as an example of retro done right bemoaned the Countryman subcompact SUV – a concept actually ahead of its time. The Coupe and Roadster, perhaps rightfully, deserved (and received) an eye roll. But now there's a so-called four-door hardtop that went on sale this year and this forthcoming, six-door Clubman that approaches the compact hatchback class in size. These vehicles actually look like practical moves at keeping buyers from defecting to larger cars made by someone else, rather than vain attempts at maximizing investment in a set of parts. And in an interesting twist, Mini is turning into one of its ancestors – minus the feeling of inevitable doom. Many of us were led to believe somewhere since Mini's relaunch about 15 years ago that the brand would be a stepping stone into the greater BMW fold. But in reality, it's done exactly the opposite, creating a parallel brand for those not willing to embrace the BMW image, but leaning heavily on British nostalgia. That was sort of the reasoning used when BMW pulled the Rover Group of England away from a fruitful partnership with Honda in 1994 and absorbed it all. In the consolidate-or-die '90s, it made sense. BMW had a small, but successful, line of sedans. Rover had no success outside of Western Europe (its last US attempt at selling cars, the Sterling, ended three years earlier). Yet its Land Rover line of SUVs was just right for the time and the 35-year-old Mini still had image-conscious clout. With every passing day, the brilliance of BMW's move to abandon Rover in 2000 seems brighter. Even ditching Land Rover made sense in the long run (and probably saved Jaguar in the process). With every passing day, the brilliance of BMW's move to abandon Rover in 2000 seems brighter. During a chat with Mini USA VP David Duncan this summer, it became clear the Mini of the past is probably gone. A small, city-sized Mini is not necessarily off the table, but larger and more profitable models are coming first.