The German manufacturer BMW announced this Thursday an investment of 1,300 million euros to produce its future range of electric cars and associated batteries in China from 2026.
“The integration of Neue Klasse into our production in China is linked to the establishment of a high-voltage battery assembly line for the next and then the sixth generation of batteries and will contribute significantly to the further electrification of our portfolio and therefore therefore to the success of our business,” Milan Nedeljkovic, a BMW board member and production manager in Shenyang, China, said in a statement.
Less than 1% market share in China
Its Chinese factory allows the local production of vehicles for China, its main market. As with its German competitors, China is also the world’s largest EV market for BMW. But in this segment, BMW accounted for less than 1% of the market share in China in 2022, far behind Tesla (7.8%) and China’s BYD (16%).
However, the group expects electric vehicle sales to account for half of its global deliveries by 2030. BMW already produces its own electric batteries at its Shenyang site and at three of its German factories. Three more battery manufacturing plants are planned in Hungary, Mexico and the United States.
This investment will be made by the Chinese joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive, founded in 2003 to develop production in China, where the German group has been present since 1994. It should allow the creation of 2,000 jobs, in addition to the 30,000 current employees of the group in China.
Source: BFM TV
