BMW is stocking up staff for electrification
At their plant in Dingolfing, Bavaria, BMW is planning to increase the number of jobs in the production of electric drive components from the current 600 to up to 2,000 employees. Also, preparations are being made for the production of the iNEXT planned for 2021.
BMW’s Dingolfing site currently employs around 18,000 people. In addition to classic car output, the plant also manufactures vehicle components for electric drive systems including batteries, among other things.
The plant in Lower Bavaria makes components such as high-voltage accumulators and electric transmissions for the new BMW i models, as well as batteries and electric motors for electrified models of the Group for example. Also, BMW announced its intention to pump a mid-double-digit million euro amount into structural measures and plants in Dingolfing alone for battery production of the all-electric Mini last October reportedly.
BMW has high personnel requirements for the foreseeable future, especially in the area of e-mobility components. In particular, as from 2020, the latest, fifth generation of electric drives will be produced at the site, which “will ensure further growth in unit numbers”, as the carmaker states in an accompanying press release.
Preparations are also underway for the purely electric iNEXT, which will see the light of day in Dingolfing in 2021. Bavaria’s new electrical flagship will be accompanied by a large number of innovations in production. The iNext will be the first fully battery-powered BMW from Dingolfing, Germany, and will be flexibly assembled on a production line alongside plug-in hybrid models and vehicles with combustion engines. Plant manager Ilka Horstmeier comments: “The BMW iNext bundles all key automotive technologies: it is fully electric, fully networked and highly automated. It is the building block of the future for the entire Group.”
Already the BMW factory in Dingolfing is one of the largest in the Group’s network. In 2018, the share of electrified models more than doubled year-on-year, to around 9% of the total production output. Almost 30,000 plug-in hybrids of the BMW 5 Series and 7 Series rolled off the assembly lines at the Dingolfing plant.
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