BMW Starts Production of Motor and Battery Packs for iX, i4 EVs

• Dingolfing plant begins production, continues to expand

• New models mark fifth-gen battery and e-motor from BMW

Production of the electric drivelines for the BMW iX and BMW i4 is underway, the brand has announced. The plant in Dingolfing continues to expand and BMW says it plans for the shop to build electric drivetrains for 500,000 vehicles a year starting next year as the company moves to electrification.

The latest batteries and battery modules are the fifth generation of BMW’s electric vehicle technology and will be used in the latest EVs. The plant also builds the fifth-generation electric motor from BMW, which started production last year for the iX3. The plant has long been BMW’s focus for EV component production, with the i3’s battery packs beginning their lives there in 2013. It also makes the battery packs for the Mini Cooper SE EV.

BMW has plans to see 50 percent of its vehicles electrified by 2030, and since the company sold 2.5 million vehicles in 2019, that’s a lot of electric motors. So BMW is working on increasing capacity at its existing drivetrain production plants like Dingolfing and is looking at converting others, something it has started in Regensburg and Leipzig.

More than 500 million euros (CAD 740m) will be spent at Dingolfing alone between last year and 2022, with more than half that again spent on expanding capacity for electric powertrain components at locations across Germany.

The latest motors use no rare-earth metals, and BMW designs and tests its motors and batteries in-house using its own modular systems for flexibility.

Production of the iX itself will start at Dingolfing soon, BMW said, with the i4 starting in Munich in the fall.