BMW is building yet another battery plant, this time right in its backyard—Bavaria. While a specific Bavarian location hasn’t been selected just yet, BMW is said to be in talks with some land owners and is close to a decision. According to this recent report from Electrive, BMW is looking for land up to 160 hectares, which would be almost half the size of BMW’s Dingolfing plant. If all goes to plan, BMW could break ground in 2024.
The purpose of this Bavarian plant would be to build batteries for its upcoming Neue Klasse of electric cars. BMW already announced that it would be switching to round cells, similar to those found in Tesla battery packs. The round cells increase battery density and cut down on weight, making them more advanced than BMW’s current battery cells. We know that BMW is looking for a new home for its battery production, and it was already rumored that it would be partnering with Samsung to built a plant in Hungary, but there’s no official word that just yet.
It’s no surprise that BMW wants to build a battery plant in Munich, though. The Bavarians are all-in on electrification moving forward and BMW seems to want to develop its own battery tech, rather than depend on other brands. If construction begins in 2024, the plant will be ready for when Neue Klasse models start development in 2026.
The Neue Klasse chassis will be BMW’s dedicated electric architecture, on which we’ll see cars like the next-gen iX3, electric 3 Series, and eventually even an electric M3. The latter of which will be here before the end of the decade, so sooner than you might think. If BMW wants its cutting edge chassis to have cutting edge battery tech, it’s going to need to invest heavily into developing its own, so having a plant in Munich seems like a pretty good idea.
[Source: Electrive]
