BMW announced today a new expansion that should result in a ‘major increase in capacity’ at its battery factory in China. This will support the production of the new BMW iX3 electric SUV that they unveiled earlier this year.
Last year, BMW launched its new battery factory in China under its ‘BMW Brilliance Automotive’ Joint Venture (BBA).
Today, they broke ground on the next phase of the factory.
Oliver Zipse, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Production, made the announcement:
Today, we break ground for the next stage of our electric model offensive. In this regard, we further increase the capacity of our local battery production. This enables us to follow the increasing demand for electro mobility in China.
The German automaker says that the new expansion “will produce the new, more powerful batteries of the fifth-generation BMW eDrive technology for the fully-electric BMW iX3.”
After unveiling the vehicle last month, BMW announced that the new vehicle will go into production at their BBA plant Dadong, which is near the new battery factory.
Last week, BMW said that it will increase ‘BMW i’ electric vehicle production by 54% at its Leipzig factory.
They say that they are leveraging their experience building electric vehicles at that plant for their new EV manufacturing efforts, like this one in China.
Zipse said:
Maximum utilisation of plant capacity is a priority for us. That is why we are designing our production system so that we can build models with a fully or partially electric drive train or combustion engine on the same assembly line.
Last year, BBA’s automotive plants in Tiexi and Dadong produced “almost 400,000 vehicles for the Chinese market – an increase of around 30% year-on-year.”
They plan for the capacity to increase to 520,000 units per year as soon as next year and much of the new capacity is going to be electric vehicles in order to comply with China’s ZEV mandate.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments