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‘A new era is dawning at the BMW Group’s factory in Munich: the Neue Klasse limousine will be produced here from 2026, and a year later the plant will switch to the production of purely electric powered models. From the end of 2027, the Munich facility will become the first representative of the BMW Group’s international production network to successfully transition to electric mobility,’ the company announced.
‘The Munich factory is an excellent example of our adaptability. We are investing 650 million euros in the facility, where from the end of 2027, only models with a pure electric drive will be produced,’ Milan Nedeljković, member of the Board of Directors of BMW AG responsible for production announced.
‘Last year, we started serial production of six different zero-emission models. At the same time, we also set a production record, proving that with our production network we are able to produce and shape the future at the same time,’ he added.
‘Munich is the beating heart of BMW. The Munich factory is innovative and highly adaptable. As in the 1960s, the Neue Klasse is once again laying the foundations on which our factory will reinvent itself. This comprehensive technological transition is carried out in parallel with the production of around 1,000 new cars completed daily, which is a well-established practice here in Munich and thanks to the outstanding performance of our employees. It gives us great pleasure to introduce the Munich factory into the purely electric future – with the Neue Klasse limousine at the forefront,’ Peter Weber, Director of the BMW Group’s Munich plant said.
At the end of 2027, the era of models equipped with internal combustion engines will end at the Munich factory.
The BMW Group’s factory in Munich is a prime example of a seamless technological transition that anticipates the era of electric mobility. In 2015, the facility successfully integrated the model versions of the BMW 3 Series with plug-in hybrid drivetrain technology into the production line of model versions equipped with an internal combustion engine, to which the BMW i4 joined in 2021, as the first model with a purely electric drive. Today, every second car rolls off the production line of the Munich plant with a purely electric drive.
In 2026, the Munich factory will initially start serial production of the Neue Klasse in parallel with the current models. More than a year later, from the end of 2027, the facility will become the first plant in the BMW Group’s international production network that, as a result of the technological transition carried out by that time, will carry out series production exclusively of models with pure electric drive. 75 years after the start of serial production of the BMW 501 model in 1952, the era of models equipped with internal combustion engines at the Munich factory is ending.
Series production of the Neue Klasse models will begin at the BMW Group’s factory in Debrecen and Munich, and the future models will then be produced in the Chinese city of Shenyang and the Mexican city of San Luis Potosí.
The long-term operation of the Munich factory is guaranteed by a comprehensive transformation
In the past more than 100 years, the BMW Group’s factory in Munich has gone through many changes and reinvented itself from time to time. The company’s success story is surrounded by milestones such as the technological transition between the production of aircraft engines and the production of car models, or the successful debut of the Neue Klasse in the 1960s.
The new technological transition is currently projected by several large constructions, paving the way for the arrival of the Neue Klasse in 2026. The investment of 650 million euros also includes four buildings, which house, among other things, a new assembly line supplemented with logistics areas, as well as a new bodywork building hall.
In order to be able to fully satisfy the space requirements of the technological transition on the limited floor space of the factory located in the heart of Munich, the resources manufacturing department was moved after about 70 years to Hams-Hall in Great Britain and the city of Steyr in Austria. In Munich, 1,200 employees were further trained in various production strategies or were given new jobs at other facilities in the production network.
As in the 1960s and during the changes that have taken place since then, the new technological transition of the BMW Group’s factory in Munich is also taking place in parallel with series production. Regardless of the construction work, around 1,000 new models see the light of day in Munich every day, including model variants of the BMW 3 Series and the BMW i4 on the same assembly line.
The comprehensive transformation of the BMW Group’s factory in Munich guarantees the long-term operation of the plant, as well as a significant investment in Bavaria as an industrial location.
Digitisation at the BMW Group factory in Munich along the principles of the BMW iFACTORY production strategy
The basic principles of the BMW iFACTORY production strategy guarantee absolute flexibility, exceptional efficiency and outstanding integration capabilities in all plants of the BMW Group’s international production network from the new factory being built in Debrecen to the facility in Munich, which has been operating for more than 100 years and is preparing full steam for the next technological transition.
The BMW iFACTORY production strategy is synonymous with absolute production expertise covering the entire production network. One of its important pillars is digitisation covering every detail, which, along a holistic approach, raises the interaction between specialists, production processes and intelligent systems to a new dimension, while optimising the phases of serial production and supporting the work of specialists. Its application covers three areas, data science, artificial intelligence and virtualisation.
Source: Dehir
