Shanghai (ZXZC)- German premium automaker BMW and China's Great Wall Motor (GWM) are working on exploring deeper cooperation, after they had signed a letter of intent on jointly producing electric Mini vehicles in China in February, 2018.

According to a reliable source, both parties not only cooperate in vehicles, but also have started to cooperate in hydrogen fuel cell area and conduct joint R&D in this area, based on their similar ideas on the trends of future vehicles' power.

What's more, the manufacturing base of GWM and BMW's JV will be selected from GWM's two bases, one is GWM's new base located in Yongchuan, Chongqing, and the other one is GWM's third-phase plant situated in Baoding, Hebei province.

Reportedly, both BMW and GWM are bullish on the R&D of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Currently, the relevant products have been tested.

Although lithium battery vehicle market grows increasingly popular temporarily, a number of energy experts believe that hydrogen fuel cell battery is more environment-friendly than lithium battery. Insiders of GWM have confirmed that hydrogen fuel cell battery will be the most widely-used energy material for vehicles over the next 30 years. Therefore, the automaker had announced the R&D of hydrogen fuel cell battery last year. On Mar. 13, GWM even joined the Hydrogen Council, becoming China's first automaker that joined as steering member of Hydrogen Council.