BMW Group brings e-drives to Austria
From 2025 onwards, BMW's next generation of e-drives will be created in Steyr – with both production and development on site – as company's plant Steyr embarks on an electrified future.
The German auto group says that it will invest around one billion euros in competence development in this area between now and 2030. The significant increase in capacity will ensure the plant in Upper Austria remains the group’s leading drive-train location.
“This plant has developed and manufactured combustion engines for our BMW and MINI brands for more than 40 years. One out of every two BMW Group vehicles around the world today already has a ‘heart’ built in Steyr. From 2025, we will also develop and produce the next generation of e-drives here,” explains Milan Nedeljković, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for production, in a press release.
Alexander Susanek, managing director of BMW Group Plant Steyr, says that the group will produce more than 600,000 e-drives per year – while maintaining high production capacity utilisation for diesel and petrol engines.
"By 2030, around half of our 4,400 employees will work in electromobility. This is also an enormous step towards securing jobs here at the BMW Group site in Steyr for the long term."
Going forward, Steyr will produce all core components for the e-drive train; the rotor and stator, the transmission, the inverter and the housing. These components will then be installed on two new assembly lines.
To perform these tasks, existing production areas will be refurbished and new spaces created. A two-storey production hall will house two assembly lines for e-drives, including transmission assembly. The new building will also be used for manufacturing power electronics with clean room technology. A second new building will expand the logistics areas. As a result, the total production area will be expanded by about 60,000 square metres. Investment in production will total around EUR 710 million by 2030.
“We are strengthening the Steyr location by continuing to expand expertise in electric drive technology. For the first time, an entirely new drive train will be developed here in Austria,” adds Frank Weber, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Development, in the press release.
The development location will be investing around EUR 230 million in these new high-performance e-drives between now and 2030. A third of the 700 developers in Steyr already work in e-mobility. By 2030, this number will increase to around 90%.
