The carmaker plans to employ 2,000 people in the county town soon. In 2022, one in three BMWs sold in Europe is said to be a hybrid or electric car.
BMW accelerates the ramp-up of e-mobility. BMW boss Oliver Zipse said on Thursday at the opening of the new battery and electric motor factory in Dingolfing, Lower Bavaria: “As early as 2022, we will be able to produce electric drives in Dingolfing alone for over half a million electrified vehicles per year.”
The number of employees has increased from 600 to 1000 since January and will be increased to 2000 in the medium term. From January to the end of May, BMW delivered “more electrified vehicles than in the previous year, despite the long market downtime caused by Corona,” said Zipse. Already next year, one in four BMWs sold in Europe should be a hybrid or electric car, and one in three in 2022. BMW does not have to fear any fines: “We will be well below the CO2 limit this and next year.”
Together with the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), Zipse started the production of the fifth generation of BMW electric drives. It has more powerful batteries, works without rare earths and combines the electric motor, power electronics and gearbox in one housing.
A BMW spokesman explained that the added value in-house is similar to that of a combustion engine. The new drive will be used for the first time in the fully electric BMW SUV iX3, which will roll off the assembly line in China from September.
BMW has its battery cells manufactured by suppliers, but it uses them to build its own batteries – at the largest European plant in Dingolfing, the US plant in Spartanburg and the Chinese plant in Shenyang.
The area of the electric drive is increased tenfold
Works council chief Stefan Schmid said during a factory tour: “The employee now has a better paid job than before. Overall, it’s a success story.” The fully electric, highly autonomous luxury SUV iNext should roll off the assembly line in Dingolfing next year; a fully electric 7 Series BMW is to follow.
“We are continuing to increase electric mobility and are setting standards in the transformation of our industry,” said Zipse. Ten percent of the cars built in Dingolfing are already plug-in hybrids. On the same lines, gasoline, diesel and electric cars would be built “in the mix requested”.
The group will invest half a billion euros in Dingolfing by 2022, and the area of the electric drive will be increased tenfold. Batteries and electric motors will soon be built on eight production lines; four further lines are already planned.
CSU boss Söder said that promising jobs are very important – “but don’t keep something artificially alive! The car industry should not become a state subsidy company.”
