Steyr, Austria. The new halls for future e-drive manufacturing reached completion on the BMW Group web site in Steyr. Construction started in September 2022, with the topping-out ceremony happening precisely one 12 months later. With some 60,000 sq. metres of manufacturing area, the 105 by 150-metre constructing was erected to a decent schedule. But now it’s standing. “The construction and installation of this production facility for Neue Klasse e-drives is running totally to plan. Now comes the next important stage, which is no less ambitious than the construction of the halls themselves,” defined Helmut Hochsteiner, head of electrical drives on the BMW Group web site in Steyr.
Approx. 300 gadgets of plant and gear price over 500 million euros
Over the subsequent few months, round 300 gadgets of plant and gear – many made to specification – will should be put in, prepared for pre-series manufacturing to launch as deliberate in July of this 12 months. “The 300 machines are all shapes and sizes, from small, individual items to the over 30 metre-long ‘marriage’ station. Here, four robots and other systems will work in concert to fit the transmission to the main motor,” stated Hochsteiner.
Klaus von Moltke, Senior Vice President of Engine Production at BMW AG and Plant Director of Steyr, outlined the financial dimensions of the venture: “We are investing a total of more than 500 million euros in plant and equipment for Steyr, offering further confirmation of the BMW Group’s commitment to the site. Series production of e-drives for the Neue Klasse is scheduled for launch in the autumn of 2025.”
The first piece of plant was introduced into the brand new meeting corridor in the long run of January. The ‘inaugural inhabitant’ is a crane that may elevate energy electronics elements from the primary ground – the place inverter shall be assembled in a clean-room – right down to last meeting on the bottom ground. Once the digital elements have arrived, the inverter and e-drive shall be ‘married’.
By 2030 the BMW Group will make investments some 1 billion euros in whole in e-drive manufacturing at its Steyr facility. The plant will manufacture over 600,000 e-drives a 12 months alongside diesel and petrol models. Production of those will stay excessive as nicely, with combustion engines forming an necessary a part of Steyr’s product portfolio nicely into the longer term.