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Fore! Pro golfers race BMW i8 against a golf cart

You wouldn't think a couple of pro golfers racing a golf cart along a nice green course would get the blood pumping. But throw in a BMW i8 plug-in hybrid and things get at least a little more interesting. At least, that's what the German automaker is hoping for. Bimmer is swinging big with a cross-promotional video featuring two pairs of golfers racing plug-in vehicles at the 2014 BMW International Open golf tournament in Koln, Germany. Two of the golfers take your run-of-the-mill golf cart while the other two take a slightly more powerful BMW i8, with the goal to get to the course's "halfway house" first. The race, among other things, sends jackrabbits scurrying and shows off the i8's really cool doors and racy styling. The odd part – "spoiler" alert – is that the golf cart wins the race by taking a short cut through the course despite the fact that the i8 pairs a 231-horsepower turbocharged engine with a 131-horsepower electric motor. It's probably not exactly the message of high-speed performance BMW wants to convey but it would raise eyebrows if this weren't all a silly stunt. Check out the three-minute video below and then read our i8 First Drive impressions here.

China’s Great Wall looking to partner with BMW to sell cars in the West

The Chinese automaker Great Wall seems to have moved on from courting Fiat Chrysler. According to Reuters, the company announced in a stock exchange filing that it's looking to collaborate with BMW's Mini brand in some way. Reuters also reports that BMW is open to discussion. We reached out to a BMW representative, and he provided us with an official statement regarding the news. The company didn't specifically say it is talking with Great Wall. What it did say is that it has had success with its current partnership with another Chinese automaker Brilliance, but also that the company is interested in expanding the Mini brand worldwide and in China. The statement says that Mini's future strategy and expansion will include "diversification of partnerships and new cooperation models." It also said that expanding in China "is only possible with a local partner." That sounds to us like BMW is pretty interested in working with Great Wall. This move comes about a month and a half after Great Wall attempted to purchase parts of Fiat Chrysler. The company was reported to be talking to FCA to purchase the Jeep brand, and it later confirmed that it was interested in that brand, a few, or the whole company. But things seemed to fall apart when Fiat Chrysler's CEO Sergio Marchionne announced it hadn't received any offers and wasn't working on any kind of deal with another company. Now it may seem a little odd that Great Wall would shift from trying to buy an SUV brand, or a company that is beginning to concentrate on crossovers and trucks, to one that specializes in compact cars. After all, they're fairly different segments. Our theory is that Great Wall isn't necessarily interested in the specific products, but more that it's looking for a gateway to Western car markets. It's not something new for the company. As far back as 2013, the company made it clear it was looking to start selling cars in America. It also started looking into a manufacturing facility in Mexico earlier this year, which would supposedly supply vehicles to both Mexico and the U.S. Now when Great Wall announced its American sales intentions, it was targeting a date of 2015. That obviously didn't happen, and it probably has something to do with the company's products. Most of the cars under the Great Wall and Haval brands bear an uncanny appearance to discontinued models from other companies that compete in the West.

BMW, Toyota outline new tech joint venture, new sports car

Back in June, Toyota and BMW announced a "memorandum of understanding" outlining plans for the two companies to join forces on future products and technology development. On Thursday, they signed a more formal and binding agreement that goes further into detail about the partnership, and it all sounds pretty exciting. The two announced they will work together in four main areas:
Joint development of a fuel cell system
"Set up a feasibility study to define a joint platform concept for a mid-size sports vehicle"