BMW invests 400 million euros in Dingolfing plant for highly automated electric vehicles production

According to a recent report, the BMW group is investing 400 million euros in restructuring its Dingolfing vehicle plant for the production of electric vehicles, including the highly automated BMW iNEXT. The update of the plant should be done by 2021 and the BMW iNEXT will be the first pure electric vehicle produced in Dingolfing. 

According to BMW, the Dingolfing plant after the revamp will be capable of producing the right mix of fully-electric vehicles, plug-in hydbrids and models with combustion engines to suit demand on a single assembly line. So, this investment is not only for the transmission to e-mobility but also for standard production of highly-automated vehicles.

Milan Nedeljkovic, member of the board of management, BMW said: “Thanks to our flexible production structures, our plants are ideally equipped to meet the most diverse market needs. We firmly believe that, over the next few years, there will be more than just one solution worldwide for all our customers’ mobility needs. Instead, we expect to see a mix of different drive technologies.” 

He also said, “As the technology in our cars grows more and more complex, system integration capabilities will become a decisive competitive advantage. With the BMW iNEXT, our Dingolfing location is demonstrating that we are capable of implementing growing product demands in efficient large-scale industrial production.”

The BMW iNEXT, instead of just a new car, will exemplify those key automotive innovations, especially autonomous driving, said the new Dingolfing plant director Christoph Schroder. 

All areas of the plant are preparing for the remodelling activities at full swing, primarily keeping BMW iNEXT in mind. The body shop has been redesigned and adapted for the vehicle, while new production lines are being set up for the complex assembly of the body’s surface and panelling. 

The BMW iNEXT will thus, benefit from many production processes set up at the site. In one of Dingolfing’s two assembly halls, the new model will be produced efficiently and flexibly on a single line along with upper niche models such as the BMW 5 Series, 7 Series and 8 Series models.

Plant Dingolfing is one of the BMW Group’s 31 production sites worldwide that produces around 1,500 BMW 3 Series, 4 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series, 7 Series and 8 Series cars daily. In 2018, the plant produced a total of nearly 330,000 vehicles. Around 18,000 employees and 800 trainees currently work at the Dingolfing location.