+++ Very excessive capability utilisation, with annual manufacturing of 238,301 autos in 2023 – Higher manufacturing figures anticipated for 2024
+++ Global market launch of recent BMW X2 in early March
+++ 600 new hires in 2024
+++ Further € 200 million funding to safe long-term way forward for Regensburg and Wackersdorf
Regensburg. Prospects are trying good for the BMW Group in Upper Palatinate: Plant Director Armin Ebner is extraordinarily optimistic for 2024. “Since we added a night shift in autumn of last year, our daily production has already increased by about 300 vehicles, to 1,300 currently. Our total annual production for 2023 was 238,301 vehicles.” This implies that, final 12 months, practically one in ten BMWs produced worldwide got here from Regensburg.
“This confirms the strong customer appeal of the compact class models built in Regensburg, the BMW X1 and the BMW X2,” underlines Ebner. The second technology of the BMW X2 went into manufacturing in Regensburg in November. The international market launch of the car manufactured solely at BMW Group Plant Regensburg occurred on 2 March. Its essential markets might be China, the US and Europe.
Ebner anticipates an additional enhance within the variety of autos produced in Regensburg in 2024. To be extra exact, the plant will be capable to manufacture properly over 300,000 models per 12 months, if justified by market demand. Production of electrical fashions, particularly, is predicted to extend considerably: In 2024, a minimum of one in three BMWs leaving the BMW Group’s Bavarian car vegetation must be an electrical automotive – and the identical applies to Regensburg.
“With the BMW iX1 and BMW iX2, we will continue to inspire customers around the world with fully-electric driving pleasure from Regensburg,” says Ebner. Europe is a very essential gross sales marketplace for the fully-electric BMW iX2. In its home market of Germany, as an example, the BMW iX1 was Germany’s ninth hottest electrical automotive, with 14,694 new car registrations in 2023, in line with the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA).
High-voltage batteries for the electrical vehicles in-built Regensburg are produced on the Leibnizstraße web site, in direct proximity to the car plant. “Our location in Leibnizstraße provides valuable support for the transformation. The fact that we produced more than 100,000 high-voltage batteries here last year is evidence of the successful ramp-up of electromobility in Regensburg,” explains Ebner. To meet variations in buyer demand throughout all areas of the world, Regensburg may even proceed to construct autos with an inside combustion engine as a part of the combination on the identical meeting line.
Commissioning of battery testing centre in Wackersdorf from mid-2024
The Wackersdorf location can also be set to grow to be a significant facilitator for electromobility: “The first deliverables from our new battery testing centre will enter into regular operation in Wackersdorf from mid-2024 onwards,” says Ebner. The new testing centre, masking an space of greater than 8,000 sq. metres, might be built-in into the positioning’s present constructing constructions. Here, high-voltage batteries and different electrical powertrain parts for future BMW Group fashions might be put by means of their paces in a really early section of improvement – properly earlier than the beginning of manufacturing.
600 new hires deliberate by finish of 2024
This excessive stage of manufacturing can also be mirrored within the improvement of worker numbers. “We already hired more than 500 new staff in 2023. For 2024, we are planning on recruiting another 600 for our production,” explains Ebner. The web site is trying to rent staff in areas with abilities shortages, equivalent to upkeep and electronics. “But we will also be offsetting natural attrition caused by people leaving the plant due to age,” Ebner continued. BMW Group Plant Regensburg will recruit 120 new apprentices in the summertime as properly. “This will include training eight apprentices for our planned new site in Straßkirchen here in Regensburg.” The BMW Group’s core employees at its Regensburg and Wackersdorf places in japanese Bavaria at present totals round 9,250 staff.
€ 200 million funding in securing long-term future – gearing up for manufacturing of NEUE KLASSE from second half of the last decade
By the top of 2024, a complete of round € 200 million might be channelled into the Regensburg and Wackersdorf places. Ebner: “The prospects for both sites look very good. This renewed investment will help us secure the long-term future of both facilities. At the same time, it is also an investment in Upper Palatinate as a location for industry.”
At the identical time as constructing the present fashions, the car plant in Regensburg can also be making ready for manufacturing of the following mannequin technology, which can ramp up within the second half of the last decade. “With the NEUE KLASSE, the company aims to set new standards for digitalisation, electrification and circularity – and we are already gearing up for this in Regensburg. During the production break over the New Year, we completed the first major modifications, including for our vehicle assembly. Further extensive structural measures will be implemented at the turn of the year 2024/2025,” explains Ebner.
Extensive useful resource conservation initiatives
BMW Group Plants Regensburg and Wackersdorf are additionally investing in useful resource conservation. Initiatives vary from transport logistics to biodiversity, and from water administration to new, resource-efficient manufacturing strategies. “For example, at the start of the year, we converted one of our paint shop’s two base coat lines entirely to dry separation using limestone powder. The second line – due to production reasons – will be switched in August 2025.”
This technique will save the BMW Group plant websites in Regensburg and Dingolfing a complete of 17 million litres of water and round 17,400 megawatt hours of vitality per 12 months. “Converting the painting process moves us another step closer to the BMW Group’s aim of reducing CO2 emissions throughout the entire vehicle lifecycle by 40 percent by 2030,” emphasises Ebner.
BMW Group Plant Regensburg additionally invested in water-efficient practices in 2023. Refurbishing its re-cooling techniques has diminished the plant’s complete water consumption by a fifth, saving round 53 million litres of water per 12 months.
Digitalisation in step with ideas of BMW iFACTORY
As it implements the BMW iFACTORY, the BMW Group can also be targeted on digitalising the Regensburg plant web site to create a digital and clever linked manufacturing unit. “We are following a holistic approach that brings together people, processes and systems. Digitalisation optimises processes and helps our employees do their jobs – because people will continue to be the backbone of our production,” says Ebner.
For instance, BMW Group Plant Regensburg is the automotive trade’s first plant worldwide to make use of an end-to-end digitalised and automatic course of for inspection, processing and marking of painted car surfaces in commonplace manufacturing that depends on robots managed by AI (synthetic intelligence).
“My aim is for us to be a pioneer, shaping change together with our outstanding plant team, so we can defend our leading global position – and so mobility ‘made in Upper Palatinate’ can continue to inspire people all over the world in the future,” sums up Ebner.
BMW Group Corporate Communications
Saskia Graser, head of Communications Regensburg and Wackersdorf
Cell cellphone: +49 151 6060 2014, Email: Saskia.Graser@bmw.de
Media web site: www.press.bmwgroup.com
Email: presse@bmw.de
BMW Group Plants Regensburg and Wackersdorf
The BMW Group has considered itself for many years because the benchmark for manufacturing know-how and operational excellence in car building – together with at its places in Regensburg and Wackersdorf.
The BMW Group car plant in Regensburg has been in operation since 1986 and is certainly one of greater than 30 BMW Group manufacturing places worldwide. A complete of as much as 1,300 autos of the BMW X1 and BMW X2 fashions come off the manufacturing line at Plant Regensburg each workday – destined for purchasers everywhere in the world. Different kinds of drive trains are flexibly manufactured on a single manufacturing line – from autos with inside combustion engines to plug-in hybrids, to fully-electric fashions.
High-voltage batteries for the electrical fashions in-built Regensburg are additionally produced domestically, in direct proximity to the car plant. They are assembled on the electrical part manufacturing facility, which opened in 2021 on the Leibnizstrasse location.
BMW Innovation Park Wackersdorf additionally belongs to the Regensburg web site. The 55-hectare campus constructed within the Nineteen Eighties was initially supposed as a nuclear reprocessing facility. The BMW Group has positioned its cockpit manufacturing there, in addition to its components provide for abroad vegetation. In addition to BMW as the most important employer, a number of different corporations are additionally based mostly at Innovation Park Wackersdorf. A complete of round 2,500 staff work there.
The BMW Group core employees on the Regensburg and Wackersdorf places in japanese Bavaria is made up of round 9,250 staff, together with greater than 300 apprentices.
www.bmwgroup-werke.com/regensburg/de.html