BMW plant Steyr: Pre-series start for electric motors of the ‘Neue Klasse’

Two years after the start of construction of the new production hall, BMW initiated pre-series production, which serves both to test the production facilities and to trial the motor produced. From now on, BMW will manufacture all the core components of the electric motor itself in Steyr and then assemble them into a complete drive system. Originally, pre-series production was due to start in July – now it is the beginning of September.

In total, the BMW Group is investing around one billion euros in electric drives at the Steyr site by 2030. In future, the Steyr plant will produce over 600,000 drives per year – in parallel with diesel and petrol engines. The decision that the sixth generation of BMW electric drives would come from Steyr was already made by the Group’s management in June 2022. In December 2022, concrete preparations were then initiated to equip the engine plants for the electric drives. To this end, existing production areas in Steyr were converted and new areas were created. The halls were completed in February 2024.

Specifically, this involves two new buildings – a two-storey production hall and a logistics hall. Two assembly lines for the electric drive systems, including the transmission components and power electronics, were set up in the production hall.

For the sixth generation of electric drive systems, BMW is bundling most of the drive components at one location. In addition to the housing, the rotor, stator, gearbox and inverter are also manufactured in Steyr. These drives will be installed in the Neue Klasse vehicles, which will be built in Debrecen from 2025 and in Munich from 2026. The Steyr plant supplies the housings for the fifth generation of electric drive systems, which will be installed in the current electric vehicle models. Assembly takes place in the company’s own electric drive production facility in Dingolfing. As the current model series will continue to be built in parallel with the Neue Klasse for a few more years, Steyr will continue to build the housings for Dingolfing. BMW can produce more than 500,000 drives per year in Bavaria, with a further 600,000 units coming from Steyr.

The Steyr plant is managed by Klaus von Moltke, who – like his predecessor Alexander Susanek – is also in charge of global engine production at BMW AG. “Today we have reached an important milestone for the BMW Group’s next generation of e-vehicles. With today’s start of pre-series production of the electric engine, we are right on schedule – from the construction of the hall, to the installation of around 150 machines and systems, to the start of pre-series production of the individual components,” said Moltke. This is a brilliant achievement by the entire team at the Steyr site, together with the many suppliers from Austria.

BMW had ended combustion engine production at its main plant in Munich as part of the reorganisation of drive production for the electric future. BMW still builds combustion engines in Steyr and Hams Hall in the UK, and its electric motors in Steyr and Dingolfing.

Update 3 December 2024

The BMW plant in Steyr has shipped the first electric motors for the Neue Klasse test vehicles directly to the vehicle plant in Debrecen. It is a further step on the way to series production. “Our plant in Steyr has been delivering the first sixth-generation electric engines to the development department in Munich since September. We also recently began sending our e-engines directly to BMW Group Plant Debrecen, where they are being installed in test vehicles,” explains Klaus von Moltke, SVP Engine Production at BMW AG and Managing Director of BMW Group Plant Steyr.

BMW began pre-series production of electric motors in Steyr in September. Pre-series production of the upcoming electric SUV has also been running in Debrecen since mid-November. That means that the motors installed there to date have taken the diversions via Munich described by Moltke. Although the pre-series is still underway, BMW is getting closer to the actual supply chain.

“Over the coming months, we will continue to validate and optimise the complex production process for the new electric motors,” says Helmut Hochsteiner, VP of Electric Engine Production at BMW Group Plant Steyr. In Steyr, Upper Austria, 4,700 employees produce over one million petrol and diesel engines every year at the world’s largest BMW Group engine plant. The electric motors for the Neue Klasse are the first from Steyr; until now, BMW has manufactured its electric drives at other plants.

bmwgroup.com (in German), bmwgroup.com (update)