BMW is making a serious wager on Germany, committing round €2 billion to arrange its factories for the next-generation 3 Sequence.
Round €1 billion will improve the Munich and Dingolfing vegetation, whereas one other €1 billion is being invested in a brand new battery facility in Bavaria. Munich will swap to constructing solely electrical vehicles from 2027, beginning with the brand new i3.
On the centre of BMW’s plan is the eighth-generation 3 Sequence, a mannequin that has outlined BMW for many years. The electrical i3 shall be in-built Munich, whereas petrol and plug-in hybrid variations will come from Dingolfing.
The brand new battery plant is equally essential. It’ll provide BMW’s sixth-generation high-voltage batteries to Munich, retaining a key a part of EV manufacturing inside Germany.
The timing is especially fascinating. BMW is investing closely at dwelling whereas slicing round 8,000 jobs in Germany and providing voluntary redundancy to about 40,000 workers. Its rivals are decreasing manufacturing capability. Volkswagen is contemplating main capability cuts, whereas Mercedes is shifting extra funding in the direction of its Hungarian operations.
BMW clearly believes its factories are value defending. As a substitute of merely shifting manufacturing elsewhere, the corporate is focusing on administration layers, improvement instances and prices whereas persevering with to spend money on German manufacturing.
Supply: European Enterprise Journal
