BMW expands EV parts production in Landshut

BMW invests 200 million euros in its component plant in Landshut, Germany, and expands production capacity there. Specifically, the central housing for the electric drive unit of the Neue Klasse will be produced there.

BMW will build a new production facility to house component production for the Neue Klasse. It will have three levels and two production lines. The carmaker intends to use the so-called “Injector Casting” process.

“Injector casting ensures that parts are cast with optimum mechanical properties. It has the additional effect of shortening the cycle time and, as a result, reducing energy consumption considerably while also cutting carbon emissions due to the lower casting temperature. This method results in reduced consumption of resources too as it requires less return material,” the manufacturer explains.

30% more capacity

According to BMW, the two new production lines will increase the annual production capacity for the fifth and sixth-generation aluminum housings by around 30%. The current fifth generation of BMW electric drives, which are used in current model series such as the iX3, i4, i5, i7, and iX, will also benefit from the expansion.

The upcoming sixth generation is planned for the Neue Klasse vehicles from 2025. As the current series mentioned above will continue to be produced in parallel, BMW will also offer EVs with the fifth and sixth generation of drive systems at the same time – and will thus require more drive housings from Landshut.

Same functioning

The functional principle of BMW electric motors will remain the same in the sixth generation: the Munich-based company will continue to use separately excited synchronous motors in which both the stator and the rotor consist of electromagnets.

The motors, abbreviated as EESM, combine the advantages of permanently excited synchronous motors (efficiency, power density) with those of asynchronous motors (no resistance when idling, no rare earths) without the disadvantages of permanent magnet synchronous motors or PSM (for example, raw material procurement of rare earths such as neodymium in the permanent magnets).

The current 200 million euros investment brings BMW’s total investment in its largest component plant to around one billion euros since 2020. Almost half of this has gone towards expanding EV-related production.

“We are continuously expanding our site’s expertise in both the production of our cutting-edge components and the development of new technologies,” says Thomas Thym, Head of BMW Group Plant Landshut. “This skill set provides us with the flexibility we will need in the future.”

Manufacturing the central housing for the sixth-generation drive technology in the Neue Klasse represents a further step in the plant’s transformation to electric mobility.

3D printing

Besides the major expansion of production space in the light metal foundry, the plant is also investing in state-of-the-art technology for manufacturing its sand cores. These sand cores are deployed in six different cylinder head variants for the production of BMW engines worldwide.

The plant makes up to 4,500 units on 17 printers daily in a large-scale 3D printing process. The sand cores are moulded by printing them layer by layer on a print head system using emission-free and environment-friendly inorganic binders.

In 2023, BMW Group Plant Landshut produced a total of around 3.6 million cast components, 430,000 plastic components for vehicle exteriors, over 300,000 CFRP parts, 286,000 cockpits, 1.4 million propeller shafts and 20,000 special engines.

Landshut makes cockpits for the BMW 5 Series, BMW 6 Series, BMW 7 Series, and BMW iX and instrument panels in base, artificial leather, leather, microfibre, and fabric trim. It also produces structural components, CFRP roofs and bonnets, glove compartments, bumpers, spoilers, and trim elements.

Land kept in reserve

The new production hall for the electric drive housings will be built on the existing site. In January of this year, BMW acquired a plot of land of around 30,000 square meters directly adjacent to the Landshut plant, intended for further future production volumes but not for the current project.

“This strategic acquisition is a key element in the plant’s ability to respond to future demand. A final decision on how exactly the new land is to be used will be made at a later date,” says BMW.

The BMW internal supply chain for the future electric models continues to take shape. The production of electric drives themselves has also been expanded and extended to the sixth drive generation. In Dingolfing, the other components are installed in the housings delivered from Landshut.

Just recently, the Munich-based company also received planning permission to do battery assembly in Lower Bavaria. There, the round cells supplied will be used to build the ready-to-install battery packs for the Neue Klasse, which will then be delivered to the Bavarian BMW vehicle plants in Dingolfing, Munich, and Regensburg.