BMW partners Andretti Formula E team, may run its own team in 2018-19 season

The German car manufacturer, BMW, is partnering with the Andretti Formula E team as part of a larger restructuring of its motorsports. The partnership that will last for two seasons though basically promises engineering and resource sharing, but BMW has greater ambitions: it's studying the methodology of the league to evaluate the possibility of fully running its own team in the all-electric racing series in the 2018-2019 season.

A statement from BMW said it would “cooperate closely with the team, in order to familiarize itself with processes in this innovative series and to check the possibility of a works involvement in the future.”

BMW isn’t new to Formula E- it’s the supplier of the championship’s course vehicles. BMW’s hybrid i8 supercar has served as the Formula E safety car since the first season, and its electric i3 is also the series’ medical car.

Getting in partnership with Formula E would also help in BMW’s futuristic plans with Electric vehicle. And with Formula E expanding to more cities (like New York), it’s a growing promotional opportunity for that side of the business, too.

Earlier this summer, Faraday Future — the secretive California-based electric car company — announced a technical partnership with Dragon Racing, the team run by Jay Penske. Then recently, Audi also widened its involvement with the second-place-finishing ABT team, and the carmaker plans to run a team outright by next season. Jaguar announced it was joining Formula E last winter, and will run its first race (with Panasonic as its title sponsor) when the third season starts on October 9th.