BMW cranks up electric car drive production in Germany
BMW is dramatically expanding production of power components at its Competence Centre for E-Drive Production in Dingolfing.
The plant is expectd to grow by a factor of ten in size, as demand for electrified vehicles grows. The plant expects the number of modules needed for production of high-voltage batteries to double from the previous year and the number of electric motors required will also increase significantly. Staffing will also more than double.
“We are embarking on a massive expansion of our Competence Centre for E-Drive Production in Dingolfing, from 8,000 square metres currently to 80,000 in the future,” said Michael Nikolaides, head of Production Engines and E-Drives at the BMW. “This is where we produce powertrain components for our fully and partially electric models. By the end of the year, we will increase our staff in this area from 600 to more than 1,400.” Up to 2,000 employees will work on electric motors, battery modules and high-voltage batteries in Dingolfing in the medium term.
“Thanks to close cooperation between vehicle and component development, our Dingolfing site is now leading the transformation of the automotive industry,” said Christoph Schröder, head of the Dingolfing plant. “More than one in five BMW 5 Series Sedans built at our Dingolfing vehicle plant today is already a plug-in hybrid.”
Staff are currently being recruited on a large scale, both internally at the BMW Group’s plant locations and outside the company. “We are also combing the market for specialists for the future technology of e-mobility,” said Nikolaides. “We don’t just supply the vehicle plant here in Dingolfing; we also delivery batteries and electric motors to most of our automotive plants worldwide.”
The expansion supports the introduction of the BMW 330e, X5 xDrive45e and X3 xDrive30e plug-in hybrids, together with the pure electric MINI Cooper SE. These will be joined in 2020 by additional electrified models, such as the BMW X1 plug-in hybrid and the fully-electric BMW iX3, expanding to 25 models by 2023 with more than half of them fully electric. A quarter of the BMW Group vehicles sold in Europe are likely to be electrified by 2021 and this percentage will reach a third in 2025 and half in 2030.
Preparations are already underway for production of the fifth generation of electric motors and batteries. Production is slated to start later this year and will set new standards for scalability and performance capabilities.
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