OXE Marine has further entrenched their relationship with BMW by announcing a partnership to have them provide engine blocks for their OXE200 series engines.
OXE's current OXE200 series uses GM’s 2 litre, 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine, which produces 200hp at the propeller and 415 Nm of torque at the crank. According to OXE's press release, they've been evaluating options for the next generation of the OXE200 series and settled on BMW as their block provider. They have enough power heads for 2021 production using the existing GM platform, at which point the changeover will happen for 2022 production. Both OXE and BMW signed a Preliminary Development Agreement (“PDA”) which assesses whether the marinized powerhead will meet OXE's requirements going forward in 2022, particularly with producing 200hp at the propeller, 400Nm of torque at the crank, and passing all emission regulations. According to OXE, they're confident BMW meet its requirement to power the next generation of the OXE200 series.
This new announcement comes following the successful collaboration with BMW to marinize their 3 litre, 6 cylinder bi-turbo engine for use in the OXE300s,. As a result, both parties have agreed to co-brand the OXE300 to develop sales and marketing initiatives together. The BMW logo and the caption “In cooperation with BMW” will be displayed on the side and rear of the cowling and will be present in the company's marketing material.
According to Myron Mahendra, CEO, OXE Marine AB, “I am really pleased of our collaboration with the BMW Group with respect to the OXE300 Bison project... Not surprisingly, both parties are keen to continue their collaboration and have entered into a PDA to assess the marinization of 4-cylinder diesel engine for the next generation of the OXE200 series – I am confident the powerhead will meet all our requirements and am excited for our future as we continue to improve and broaden our product offering."
BMW also offered their take on the new partnership as Uwe Breitweg, BMW Vice President Powertrain Systems Business Customers, offering: “OXE Marine offers the BMW Group a chance to re-enter the marine business after several years of absence. We therefore decided to take up the challenge and support this outstanding development project transforming a BMW 6-cylinder automotive diesel into an outboard engine. It turned out to be a very professional collaboration with OXE Marine in all aspects with a very unique product as an outcome, especially since the state of the art BMW-Diesel Technology helps to significantly reduce the CO2-Footprint of outboard engines. Therefore, we are looking forward to the next challenge using the 4-cylinder diesel engine as a basis for the OXE200."
Unlike gas outboards OXE diesel engines operate on a belt-drive system that's purported to be more durable than bevel gears and allows more torque to be transferred to the prop. There's evidence to suggest that's true, as OXE recently released a video showing their OXE200 series engine pulling a tug boat in a stress test:
OXE has been making moves to increase market share in 2021 since other major changes to the outboard market have hit, most notably the dissolution of Evinrude engines. In late May, OXE signed an agreement with Outdoor Network Manufacturing to produce their 125- to 200-hp outboards in the United States starting in January of 2021.
The full breakdown is available in the OXE Marine press release.
OXE Marine isn't the only engine builder making big product announcements this week. Suzuki announced the arrival of their new 4-stroke outboards for 2021, and Mercury Racing announced a radical new 300 HP propeller.
To get a behind the scenes look at how OXE builds their engines, check out the video below:
