Historic BMW Plant in Munich to Make Only EVs; Neue Klasse i3 Mass Production Starts in August

BMW Group has announced that its 104-year-old Plant Munich facility is in the final stages of a massive transformation that will see it pivot entirely to electric vehicle production next year. The company will invest around EUR 650 million to complete the long-term transformation project, which has already been in the works for some time, with new facilities and logistics operations already in place. The company says it has invested heavily in AI, automation and other technology, in line with its iFactory digitalisation, reliability and sustainability initiative.

BMW will begin mass production of the i3, its second car on the Neue Klasse platform, in August this year at the BMW Group Plant Munich. Other models, including the BMW i3 Touring, are set to follow soon after. Batteries for the i3 come from the Irlbach‑Straßkirchen high-voltage Gen6 battery plant, 90 minutes away in Lower Bavaria, while the motors come from BMW Group Plant Steyr in Austria, where all core components are developed on-site

The company says improvements already made over the past few years at Plant Munich have been aligned around efficient and flexible Neue Klasse production. In addition, it has tightened its processes with regards to planning and collaboration with its product developers and external suppliers. This overhaul of every process involved in car manufacturing was undertaken to ensure the ongoing viability of the entire plant.

“We have considerably reduced production costs over recent years. With the start of production of the BMW i3, we will reduce overall production costs at the Munich plant by a further 10 per cent, bringing them below the level of the current vehicle generation,” Peter Weber, Head of BMW Group Plant Munich, said in a statement.

Production was not interrupted while the plant was being upgraded, keeping up its capacity of around 1,000 cars per day. One third of the plant’s ground area is now dedicated to a new body shop, a vehicle assembly space, and a new logistics area.

New facilities include a press shop where raw metal is formed into thousands of different components. BMW Group has developed standardised, swappable tools and processes, allowing workers to take up different roles on demand. AI has been implemented to assist with quality control. An underground transport network carries parts to the new body shop, which was planned and modelled as a digital twin for greater efficiency. Over 800 industrial robots perform 98 percent of assembly operations here.

AI has also been used to maintain quality control at the paint shop, and cameras are used for automatic inspections. Heat and energy recovery systems, as well as water-saving processes have been implemented. A new final vehicle assembly area uses end-to-end digital tools for tracking over 20,000 status indicators per vehicle, as well as quality assurance.

Around 2.5 million parts move around the facility each day, all managed by a digital logistics system using a conveyor network and driverless robots. Also within the Plant Munich complex is a new integrated seat manufacturing facility that produces the required models and configurations on demand and also handles quality and safety inspections. Development and material testing are handled on-site.