How big is the BMW group? At the end of last year, almost 160,000 people employed more than 30 production and assembly systems worldwide. From this week, another factory will join the network. CEO Oliver Zipse and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took part in the opening ceremony of the Debrecen plant in which the new IX3 is being built.
The pre -production began almost a year ago, but customer vehicles are only rolled up by the assembly line at the end of October. The Hungarian side marks several first for the BMW group. The company has never operated a facility that only runs out of electric vehicles or one that runs completely without fossil fuels. Instead, its entire performance is drawn from renewable energies. Debrecen is also the first group of the group in Central Europe.
The work, which was built on more than 400 hectares, has created over 2,000 direct jobs. The construction lasted a little more than three years, with the foundation stone lying in June 2022. Once fully utilized, the location will produce up to 150,000 vehicles annually, with a maximum output of 30 units per hour. At the moment only the IX3 has been confirmed, but there are probably additional models. An IX4, still unannounced, would be a logical addition.
The northeastern Hungarian factory also houses a battery production system to support the first NEE class model. Debecen is the first of five places where BMW will build sixth generation of the sixth generation with round cells that provide 20% higher energy density and a faster loader of 30% than the prismatic cells used in Strom EVS.
First, the system only builds the IX3 50 XDrive. However, an affordable 40 XDrive and a single engine with a rear drive 40 SDRIVE are already in the pipeline. The performance with higher performance and complete M versions is later expected in the life cycle of the model. In the meantime, a Langrad-ix3 will start in China in China next year.
Debrecen will not be the only location that builds the standard bike ix3. From 2027, the San Luis Potosí plant from BMW in Mexico will also produce the “NA5”. Nevertheless, IX3 models that are bound to the United States will continue to come exclusively from Hungary.
