BMW Regensburg plant opts for hydrogen intralogistics vehicles
That includes the press shop, body construction and vehicle assembly. The gradual changeover should be completed by 2030. The Regensburg plant logistics fleet is currently fully equipped with electric drives, with around 230 tugger train tractors and forklift trucks. According to BMW, the batteries used in industrial trucks have to be changed twice per shift. Handling when changing batteries “manually using a crane, takes about 15 minutes and requires space.”
The company wants to avoid this by switching to hydrogen as an energy source. To this end, BMW says it will install a two-kilometre-long pipeline network and six decentralised filling stations at the Regensburg plant by the beginning of 2026. It will supply the production areas with hydrogen.
The hydrogen will be delivered via special trailers, which BMW says will also serve as temporary storage facilities. The car manufacturer does not specify in the press release where and by whom the hydrogen will be produced. However, the responsible project manager, Katharina Radtke, estimates that the annual hydrogen consumption will be around 175 tonnes after the complete conversion in 2030.
“Switching production logistics from electricity to hydrogen will diversify our plant’s energy mix – while optimising logistics processes and saving valuable space,” she says. “The advantage of hydrogen is that refuelling is very fast – just like with conventional fuels. The filling stations required for this will be installed directly within the different production areas and do not take up much space.”
The X1 and X2 series are built in Regensburg – from the combustion engine and plug-in hybrids to the battery-electric versions iX1 and iX2. In the future, Neue Klasse electric cars will also come from Regensburg. The plant is designed for up to 1,400 vehicles per day. In addition to electric cars, BMW assembles high-voltage batteries near the vehicle plant from cells supplied by the customer.
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