Seven months after the opening of its battery factory in China, the BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture (a collaboration between the BMW Group and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings) has outlined plans to expand the facility, rendering it suitable for the production of batteries for the fifth-generation of BMW’s eDrive technology – which will be at the heart of the all-electric BMW iX3. The vehicle will be manufactured at the neighboring BBA plant in Dadong, with production due to start in 2020.
“Today we break ground for the next stage of our electric vehicle offensive,” said Oliver Zipse, member of the board of management of BMW, responsible for production. “In this regard, we further increase the capacity of our local battery production. This enables us to follow the increasing demand for electromobility in China.
“Maximum utilization of plant capacity is a priority for us,” Zipse continued in a statement released on May 28. “That is why we are designing our production system so that we can build models with a fully or partially electric drivetrain or combustion engine on the same assembly line.”
