According to German media BR24, German automaker BMW has stopped producing internal combustion engine vehicles in Germany. The last V8 internal combustion engine it produced rolled off the assembly line at the Munich factory on November 10. This also means the end of an era for BMW in Germany. , in the future, German factories will be fully transformed to electrification.
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According to reports, after the original Munich factory in Germany completely stops the production of internal combustion engines, it will be fully transformed into a factory for the production of new electric models. The 1,200 employees originally responsible for BMW's internal combustion engine production will receive new training and then be deployed to other positions at BMW or other factories.
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It should be noted that the discontinuation of internal combustion engine vehicles in Germany does not mean that BMW will no longer sell fuel vehicles. To keep production of internal combustion engine cars running, BMW will move those jobs to plants in Austria and the United Kingdom. Media reports indicate that the BMW Steyr plant in Grez, Austria, may become the company's V8 engine production base, while Hams Hall, located outside Birmingham, England, will The plant will assume most of the production of other internal combustion engines. However, as early as November 2020, BMW announced that it would transfer the production of 8-cylinder and 12-cylinder engines from Munich to the Harmshall plant in the United Kingdom, and produce smaller-displacement engines in Steyr, Austria.
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Starting in October 2021, BMW will begin producing the pure electric sedan i4 at the Munich plant. The plant will also be one of the production bases for several future electric products based on the Neue Klasse platform, including the BMW i3 and the new BMW i4. These models will Launched between 2025 and 2027. But it's not just the Munich factory. BMW also produces other electric vehicles in other places in Germany, including the iX, i5 and i7 produced in Dingolfing and the iX1 and iX2 produced in Regensburg. BMW also plans to follow up in Strath. A large battery assembly base will be built in Skyscraper.
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In recent years, BMW has invested heavily in electric vehicles and accelerated its electrification transformation. However, despite this, BMW does not want to fully transform to electrification prematurely. BMW believes that it is unlikely that it will be fully electrified in 2030, so while the brand is focusing on the electric vehicle field, it will continue to launch fuel models. Its goal is that by 2030, the sales of internal combustion engine vehicles will account for 10% of total sales. The ratio can still reach 50%.
In April last year, BMW Chairman Zipps also expressed the view that "traditional fuel vehicles still have a market." Zipps believed that premature termination of internal combustion engines was not advisable; and a senior management responsible for BMW R&D also said: "Completely abandoning the technology and platform of fuel vehicles and developing and building electric vehicle production lines from scratch is too expensive and takes too long."
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According to reports, it is a common practice for most multinational automakers to transform traditional factories into electric vehicles. Volkswagen Group also previously invested 2 billion euros to convert an internal combustion engine factory into a battery production base, and closed its transmission factory in Shanghai at the end of last year. Earlier, Stellantis Group also completely overhauled and upgraded its large diesel engine factory in eastern France to transform it into the production of motors. It is expected that the factory's motor output will exceed 1 million units within three years.
However, the industry believes that judging from BMW's previous experience in modifying the Munich factory for the electric car i4, it is not easy to convert the internal combustion engine factory into a production base for electric products. AutoNode reported that plant boss Robert Engelhorn once said that the narrow structure inside the Munich plant made it difficult to install the new system. "It requires careful planning to dismantle the old system and install the new system within six weeks," AutoNode reported. and creative thinking." It is also reported that the transformation of general related production lines requires a lot of money. Previously, in order to expand the production of electric models at the factory, the investment in R&D and transformation of the Munich factory reached up to 200 million euros (approximately RMB 1.6 billion). Yuan).
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It should be noted that as new energy vehicles become a major trend in the future development of the automobile industry, it is imperative to ban the sale of fuel vehicles. In September last year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said sales of combustion engine cars would cease by 2035 under a net-zero emissions scenario of 2050, and called on governments to agree a timetable for when all new road vehicles sold should be Achieve zero emissions. Up to now, countries including Italy, France, Spain, the United States, China and other countries have clarified the time to stop selling fuel vehicles. Before that, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Slovenia and India will ban the sale of fuel vehicles in the next year. Limited to 2030, China's Hainan and Canada's Quebec have announced bans on the sale of fuel vehicles in 2035.
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Although the timing of stopping sales of fuel vehicles differs between countries and major car companies, a consensus has basically been reached. However, unlike most car companies, BMW has not yet determined an exact date for the complete discontinuation of gasoline and diesel vehicles.
Official data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the BMW Group delivered a total of 1.8366 million vehicles globally, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%. Among them, the sales of BMW and MINI brand pure electric models increased by 92.6% year-on-year to 246,900 vehicles. Broken down into the Chinese market, the BMW Group delivered a total of 602,800 BMW and MINI brand cars in China, of which BMW's pure electric model sales increased 232% year-on-year to 69,600 units. The BMW Group predicts that pure electric vehicles will account for 15% of total new car sales in 2023.
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In September this year, Zipzer announced at the 2023 World New Energy Vehicle Conference that BMW will design cars based on a new generation electric platform for the Chinese market. According to the plan, the BMW Group will start production of a new generation model in the second half of 2025. The car will use a new cylindrical battery to increase the volumetric energy density by more than 20% and increase the battery life by as much as 30%. In addition, Zipze revealed that BMW's Chinese designers are already developing a new generation of models for the Chinese market, which will include six models to meet different consumer needs. They will initially be produced in Hungary and later expanded to factories in Germany and China.
The BMW Group believes that the strong demand for BMW electric vehicles in the Chinese market will pave the way for its subsequent models. According to the plan, the pure electric BMW i5 will be unveiled within this year, and starting from 2026, BMW's new generation models will be put into production in Shenyang.
