BMW starts building battery assembly plant in Thailand

BMW has started building its own production facility for fifth-generation high-voltage batteries in Thailand. The high-voltage battery assembly facility on the site in Rayong will prepare the plant there for the production of purely electric cars.

Local BEV production is set to begin in the second half of 2025, according to the Munich-based company. The plan was announced last week when Alexander Baraka, head of BMW Group Thailand, told journalists that the company had decided to invest in battery production in Thailand. As expected, this is a battery assembly of purchased cells, not the company’s own cell production.

The future high-voltage battery assembly plant covers 4,000 square metres and represents “an important expansion of the business activities of BMW Group Manufacturing Thailand”. According to BMW, imported battery cells will be assembled into modules in the new production facility and then integrated into the high-voltage battery. “The BMW Group has invested more than 1.6 billion baht (approx. 42 million euros) in the project, a significant share of which – almost 1.4 billion baht (approx. 36 million euros) – will be used to buy state-of-the-art equipment and systems,” says BMW.

BMW already operates a vehicle plant in Rayong, where it also manufactures battery systems for the plug-in hybrids from local production. The combustion engines and hybrids are not only intended for the local market, but also for export. This will therefore also be possible with a purely electric car from next year.

BMW has not yet specified which model it will be. As it is the fifth-generation of the high-voltage batteries, it is at least clear that it will be one of the current electric models: Generation five involves prismatic cells, which are painted by BMW and installed in modules before those very modules are assembled into a ready-to-install battery pack. With the ‘New Class’, which is scheduled to go into production in Hungary in 2025, BMW is not only switching to round cells for the sixth generation of batteries, but also to a cell-to-pack concept without modules.

“Local production of high-voltage batteries in Rayong is the next logical step in the continued electrification of our production network,” says BMW Board Member for Production Milan Nedeljković, who travelled to Rayong for the ground-breaking ceremony. “Once again, the principle of ‘local for local’ applies, supporting economic development, employment opportunities and knowledge transfer in Thailand and the ASEAN region.”

bmwgroup.com