BMW completes central battery factory building in Bavaria

The construction of the assembly plant for high-voltage batteries is “going according to plan,” BMW announced. The first construction work began on site in April 2024, and the workers laid the first pillar for the central production building at the end of June 2024. Work on the building is now so far advanced that the first production machines can be installed from June, as planned.

According to Sabrina Kugler, project manager for the plant construction, the rapid progress is only possible thanks to the “very good cooperation” – within the BMW teams, but also with the partner companies. According to the Munich-based company, all of the construction companies commissioned directly by BMW are local to Germany, with two-thirds from Bavaria and one-third even from within a radius of 100 kilometres of the Irlbach-Straßkirchen site. This means that the ‘local for local’ principle is being followed during the construction phase, as the manufacturer explained.

Once completed, the facility in Irlbach-Straßkirchen will be one of five assembly plants for high-voltage batteries of the sixth generation (Gen6), in which BMW is using large-volume cylindrical cells for the first time and integrating them directly into the ready-to-install battery packs according to the cell-to-pack principle. Irlbach-Straßkirchen will primarily supply the Munich-based company’s German vehicle plants. A battery assembly plant is also being built in Debrecen, Hungary, for the plant where the iX3 will be built as the first model in the ‘Neue Klasse’. Further battery assembly plants are being built in Shenyang (China), San Luis Potosí (Mexico) and Woodruff near Spartanburg (USA) for the vehicle plants there. However, all five assembly plants are currently still under construction.

In addition to the central production building, work is also progressing on BMW’s new ‘energy centre’. This 10,000 square metre building houses the supply unit of the new plant, as well as the plant fire brigade with its vehicles, facility management with workshops and the service centre. Two large transformers will be installed on the building, which will be connected to the new 110-kilovolt power lines from the Bayernwerk Netz GmbH substation being built. The cooler systems and heat pumps, which will efficiently ensure stable temperature conditions in future, are already installed in the energy centre. These systems will centrally transform the waste heat from production and the air compressors to a higher temperature level, which will then be used to heat the buildings. In addition, filters and pumping stations are currently being installed for the collected rainwater, which will be used for the site’s toilets. Drinking water is only used for the canteens and the social and sanitary facilities, as the production itself does not require any water.

The construction of the battery assembly plant in Irlbach-Straßkirchen was controversial for a long time. There was local opposition to the project due to soil sealing and the fear of delivery traffic. It was not until September 2023 that a referendum in Straßkirchen cleared the way.

bmwgroup.com (in German)