The days of staying true to one brand have really become a thing of the past. After all, you’ve got BMW and Toyota Teaming up to build the next Z4 and Supra, Nissan and Mercedes teamed up to build the Mercedes X-Class, and Geely is buying up stock like it’s going out of style, with the most recent acquisition making Chairman Li Shufu the largest single shareholder of Daimler. And, that’s why we’re here today – that partnership, according to Manager Magazin, could extend to Daimler buying some stock in Geely and eventually supplying Mercedes Engines to Volvo. So how about it; a Volvo-AMG S60, anyone?

That report from Manager Magazin may suggest that there could be some Mercedes-power Volvos trotting the globe at some point, but it was clear to point out something important: The collaboration wouldn’t involve the two companies creating battery cells together but would result in the two companies building an electric car platform. The collaboration would allow both conglomerates to save money on research and development of the platform while allowing each to build their own dedicated battery cells.

This is, of course, one of the main reasons why Li Shufu wanted to invest in Daimler – he wanted to open the door to partnership on developing technology. He believes that developing electric powertrains and self-driving technology will be so expensive only the big boys – those that dominate the market – will be able to survive. Partnerships and mergers are the way to go as far as he is concerned. That does explain why Geely now owns Volvo and why it purchased controlling stock in Lotus just last year. Apparently, Geely was even looking into making big stock purchases of BMW and FCA in the past as well, but that has yet to come to fruition.

Better get used to this kind of thing folks – as time goes on more and more automakers are going to join forces, creating partnerships that we would have once thought impossible.

References

Read our full review on the 2017 Volvo S60.

Read more Volvo news.