BMW Group steps up electromobility: E-drives for half a million electrified vehicles
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BMW Group opens Competence Centre for E-Drive
Production in Dingolfing and expands manufacturing capacity:
E-drives for 500,000 electrified vehicles, start of production for
fifth-generation BMW e-drive, Competence Centre will employ up to
2,000 staff in medium term, investment of more than 500 million
euros by 2022 +++ Successful transformation of BMW Group’s biggest
European production site +++
Munich/Dingolfing. The BMW Group is stepping up
its e-mobility ramp-up and setting new standards for the
transformation of the industry with its production. Today, at its
largest European manufacturing location in Dingolfing, the company
opened the Competence Centre for E-Drive Production. Having produced
electric powertrain components in Dingolfing since 2013, the BMW
Group is now expanding its capacity significantly. Bavarian
Minister-President Markus Söder and Chairman of the Board of
Management of BMW AG Oliver Zipse symbolically launched production
of the new, highly integrated BMW e-drive, which combines the
electric motor, transmission and power electronics in a central
housing. The new generation of the BMW e-drive will be used for the
first time in the new BMW iX3, which will go into production in
China in late summer.
At the Competence Centre in Dingolfing, the BMW
Group will produce electric powertrain components such as battery
modules, high-voltage batteries and electric motors on eight
production lines. Over the coming years, the company will set up
four additional lines, which will boost the location’s production
capacity significantly.
Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG
Oliver Zipse said at the inauguration: “We continue to ramp up
electromobility and set standards for the transformation of our
industry. By 2022, in Dingolfing alone, we will be able to produce
e-drives for more than half a million electrified vehicles per year.
At the same time, we will produce a mix of fully-electric vehicles,
plug-in hybrids and models with a combustion engine on a single
line, as required by demand, so we can offer our customers the
‘Power of Choice’. This shows how we have paved the way for making
the shift in our industry a real success story.”
In the next few years, the production area of the
Competence Centre for E-Drive Production will be expanded to ten
times the original size: from 8,000 square metres in 2015 to 80,000.
The number of employees will also be increased. In the first half of
2020 alone, the workforce grew from 600 to 1,000. Up to 2,000
employees will work in production of e-drives at the Dingolfing
location in the medium term.
In-house production of high-voltage batteries and electric motors
“Our unique expertise in producing high-voltage
batteries and electric motors ensures our technology is always state
of the art and we are able to ramp up production quickly and
systematically in line with demand,” explained Michael Nikolaides,
head of Planning and Production Engines and E-Drives. A quarter of
BMW Group vehicles sold in Europe should have an electric drive
train by 2021; a third in 2025 and half in 2030. By 2023, the BMW
Group will offer its customers no fewer than 25 electrified models –
around half of them with a pure electric drive train.
The BMW Group possesses extensive expertise
throughout the entire value chain. Both the new, highly integrated
e-drive and new high-voltage batteries were developed in-house in
close cooperation between development departments and production.
The company is pooling its expertise in large-scale standard
production of electric drive trains at the Competence Centre for
E-Drive Production and thereby ensuring efficient production that
can respond to demand for drive trains for fully and
partially-electric vehicles at short notice. “Experience with our
flexible production system for combustion engines has been fed into
the design of our e-drive production. As a result, e-drive
production is also able to respond quickly to demand for BEV and
PHEV vehicles. In this way, we are realising the ‘Power of Choice’
for our customers,” explained Nikolaides.
The Competence Centre has also standardised the
technology used in production of battery modules for new
fifth-generation high-voltage batteries, refining the process to
reflect the growing range of electrified models and allowing
different module variants to be produced on the same line. In this
way, the company is not only setting the course for production
technology, but also securing jobs and key qualifications.
Dingolfing site transforms itself for electromobility
“BMW Group Plant Dingolfing is a perfect example
of how the automotive industry is transforming itself for
e-mobility. We have everything under one roof here: production of
batteries, electric motors and electrified vehicles,” explained
Christoph Schröder, head of BMW Group Plant Dingolfing. Today,
around ten percent of the vehicles produced in Dingolfing are
already electrified. With the launch of the BMW iNEXT in 2021, Plant
Dingolfing will be capable of producing fully-electric vehicles,
plug-in hybrids and models with a combustion engine on a single
line. “That’s how we are implementing the ‘Power of Choice’ in car
production,” Schröder added. These highly flexible structures will
also benefit the next generation of the BMW 7 Series, which will be
produced at the site and released onto the market as petrol, diesel,
plug-in hybrid and – for the first time – fully-electric variants.
Dingolfing has years of expertise building
components for electric vehicles. Series-produced high-voltage
batteries for the BMW i3 have been coming off the line here since
2013. This location has also produced electric motors since 2015.
The majority of high-voltage batteries and electric motors for all
BMW Group electrified vehicles come from the Competence Centre for
E-Drive Production. The existing structures of a large former parts
warehouse belonging to BMW Group aftersales logistics have been
retrofitted and used for this purpose in recent years.
“At the same time, we have driven the long-term
shift of competence at the location by providing employees with
targeted training for new tasks and extending development into
electromobility as an area of future activity,” said Chairman of the
Dingolfing Works Council Stefan Schmid. “Further education and
qualification are key to a successful transformation.”
Global e-drive production network focused in Germany
The BMW Group has a highly flexible production
network for electric drive trains. The high-voltage batteries needed
for electrified vehicles come from the company’s three battery
factories in Dingolfing, Spartanburg (USA) and Shenyang (China). The
BMW Group has also localised battery production in Thailand, where
it is working with the Dräxlmaier Group. BMW Group Plants Dingolfing
and Landshut produce electric motors. The Battery Cell Competence
Centre in Munich covers the entire battery cell value chain, from
research and development to battery cell composition and design, all
the way to large-scale manufacturability.
Fifth-generation BMW eDrive technology
On the same day as the official opening, the
Competence Centre also began production of the fifth-generation
electric drive train. This highly integrated electric powertrain
component combines the electric motor, transmission and power
electronics in one housing. Materials considered rare earths are
also no longer required. The drive train is compatible with all
vehicle concepts and will be available with various power levels for
different models. The system’s highly integrated design increases
power density significantly.
The fifth-generation BMW eDrive technology
features new and more powerful high-voltage batteries. Thanks to
their scalable modular design, these can be used flexibly in the
respective vehicle architecture and at the respective production
locations. The Competence Centre is currently preparing to ramp up
production of these new high-voltage batteries.
Sustainable long-term materials sourcing
Sustainability and security of supply are
important factors in the expansion of electromobility. The BMW Group
sources the battery cells needed for production of high-voltage
batteries from leading system suppliers who manufacture the cells to
the BMW Group’s exact specifications.
For the BMW Group’s purchasing experts, ethically
responsible raw material extraction and processing starts at the
very beginning of the value chain: They take a keen interest in
battery cell supply chains – all the way down to the mines
themselves. Compliance with environmental standards and respect for
human rights are top priority. |
