The BMW Group’s Plant in Munich will produce 100-percent all-electric models by the end of 2027, making it the first location in the company’s existing production network to have successfully completed the transformation to e-mobility.
“The Munich plant is an excellent example of our ability to adapt. We are investing € 650 million here and will produce exclusively all-electric vehicles in our parent plant from the end of 2027,” said Milan Nedeljković, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Production.
“Last year alone, six all-electric models went into production. At the same time, we also set a production record, proving that we are simultaneously able to both deliver and shape the future in our production network,” he added.
The Munich plant will initially produce the Neue Klasse all-electric sedan.
The BMW Group Plant Munich is a prime example of the fluent transition to the era of electromobility. In 2015, the first plug-in hybrid models from the BMW 3 Series were manufactured on the same production line as combustion vehicles. In 2021, the BMW i4 became the first all-electric vehicle to be produced on the same production line. Nowadays, every second vehicle that rolls off the production line has an all-electric drive system.
From 2026, production of the Neue Klasse in the Munich plant will initially run parallel to production of current models. A good year later, from the end of 2027, the BMW Group’s parent plant will be the first existing site in the global production network to manufacture exclusively all-electric vehicles, having been transformed accordingly. As such, the era of vehicles with combustion engines in Munich will draw to a close 75 years after the launch of the BMW 501 in 1952.
After the start in the new plant in Debrecen, Hungary, and in Munich, the Neue Klasse vehicles will also be produced in Shenyang, China, and San Luis Potosí in Mexico.
Reinventing the Munich Plant
Over the course of a history stretching back more than 100 years, BMW Group Plant Munich has undergone many changes and repeatedly reinvented itself. Together with the conversion from manufacturing aircraft engines to automobile construction, the successful introduction of the Neue Klasse in the 1960s is a milestone in the list of changes throughout the company’s history.
At the moment, multiple large construction sites are evidence of the turnaround, as they pave the way for the arrival of the Neue Klasse from 2026. The € 650 million of investment comprises four buildings, including a new vehicle assembly line with logistics areas and a new body shop.
In order to create the space within the limited floor space at the plant in the heart of Munich, the traditional engine manufacturing has been moved to Hams-Hall in Great Britain and Steyr in Austria after roughly 70 years at the parent plant. Some 1,200 employees have been trained for different production strategies in Munich or have taken up employment at other locations in the production network.
