BMW Will Focus On Making Electric Cars In Germany

BMW continues to develop electric cars to achieve the target of 50 percent of electric car production. (photo: bmw)

JAKARTA— BMW will stop making internal combustion engines at its main plant in Munich in 2024. The German car company's head of production said Friday, October 22 at a conference marking the start of production of its electric i4 model.

"The ICE engine currently made in Munich will be produced at BMW's plants in Austria and the UK in the future," Milan's head of production Nedeljkovic was quoted by Reuters as saying. However, cars using these engines will still be assembled at the Munich factory.

“However, by 2023 at least half of the vehicles produced in Munich will be electrified – either battery electric or plug-in hybrids,” said Nedeljkovic.

BMW has set a target for at least 50% of its new global car sales to be electric cars by 2030, and CEO Oliver Zipse said at a conference last week that the company would be ready with an all-electric offering if any market bans ICE by then.

The i4 battery-electric car is being built on an assembly line along with ICE and hybrid models such as the BMW 3 Series Sedan and Touring, the company said, a shift that has cost 200 million euros of investment in production infrastructure.

A similar mixed assembly line is already underway at the automaker's Dingolfing plant, which produces the BMW iX alongside the hybrid and ICE models.

"The new model will be prioritized in the decision-making where to allocate scarce chips," said plant head Peter Weber. The company has a good supply of raw materials, Nedeljkovic added.

BMW has previously said it expects to produce 70,000 to 90,000 cars. This is less than it could sell this year because of the chip shortage plaguing automakers around the world.

They are also committed to reducing emissions from transportation logistics at the Munich plant, the company's largest, to zero in the next few years, without giving a specific date.

This target will be achieved by utilizing larger battery-powered rail transport and trucks to transport vehicles in and around the plant.