One of BMW’s oldest factories, in Munich and with origins dating back to the 1920s, will start exclusively generating electric cars from 2027.
This is BMW’s fourth plant shown to build the company’s line of next-generation electric vehicles, known as Neue Klasse, joining a newly built one in Hungary and existing facilities in China and Mexico.
Production will begin with a “Neue Klasse sedan”, expected to be a Series 3 style known as the i3, in 2026, followed by other cars of the new variety at a later date.
Initially the Neue Klasse car will be built in Munich alongside petrol and diesel-powered cars, but they are planned to reach the end of the road in 2027 – from which point the factory will be electric only.
The first vehicle produced at the Munich plant was the BMW 501 in 1952. According to the automotive giant, it was already manufacturing buses and agricultural equipment in Munich as early as 1922.
BMW says the Munich plant is expected to produce around 1,000 cars on the day of the Neue Klasse conversion.
The launch of Neue Klasse cars at the Munich plant stands in stark contrast to its Hungarian plant, which is expected to start with an X3-sized SUV in 2025 before adding the sedan the following year.
“We are investing 650 million euros here and will exclusively produce fully electric cars at our parent plant from the end of 2027,” Milan Nedeljković, BMW’s head of production, told the media.
This €650 million ($AU1.06 million) investment in Munich comprises four buildings, featuring a new vehicle assembly line, a new body shop, and logistics areas.
The Munich and Hungary plants are expected to be configured according to BMW’s “iFactory” standard, where synthetic intelligence is used to speed up and optimize production.
BMW says Neue Klasse vehicles will also be produced in Shenyang, China and San Luis Potosí, Mexico in the future.
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