BMW has upgraded its Leipzig plant for the new class of vehicles.
BMW used the five-and-a-half-week production shutdown at Leipzig for extensive renovations. The plant is now ready to produce the new class of vehicles. To this end, 240 lifting tables were replaced and 160 new robots were installed. Which models will be manufactured there in the future remains unknown.
In June, BMW announced that it would use the unusually long summer break at its Leipzig plant to prepare for the new class of vehicles. Now that the transformation is largely complete, it becomes clear for the first time just how extensive the work has been. According to the Leipziger Volkszeitung, during those five and a half weeks, more than 2,000 workers from external companies were employed at the 241-hectare site. Vehicle production was suspended during this time.
According to the report, the most significant modifications were made in the assembly area. There, BMW replaced 240 hydraulic lifting tables that will now be able to support the vehicle underbodies. Swing suspensions and electric overhead cranes were also updated or had their suspensions strengthened, partly due to the increased weight of the underbodies in the new-class models, which incorporate high-voltage batteries and electric drives. BMW claims to have removed around 1,500 tons of steel from the production facilities and replaced it with new structures. To test whether the transportation systems could handle the heavier vehicles, BMW used a fairly practical testing method: existing vehicles were loaded with sandbags and then transported through the systems.
160 New Robots for Body Building
Changes were also made at the painting facility. There, BMW expanded the equipment to accommodate the heavier steel chassis of the new vehicles. At the same time, the company used the production pause to replace older technology. BMW has allocated a low three-digit million euro amount for these current upgrades. According to the automaker, it has invested nearly two billion euros in this facility over the past five years.
BMW still does not reveal which models of the New Class will be produced in Leipzig in the future. The new BMW i3 has been manufactured at the main plant in Munich since this month. In Leipzig, the BMW 1 Series, 2 Series Gran Coupé, 2 Series Active Tourer, and Mini Countryman, including its electric version, are currently being produced.
For Leipzig, manufacturing electric cars of the new class represents a return to a familiar role: from 2013 to 2022, the city produced the then i3, the company’s first fully electric series model. At the end of last year, union leader Jens Köhler also called for Leipzig to play a greater role in future electric car production. Which model will fulfill this role going forward remains unclear. However, BMW has now created the technical prerequisites for it.