BMW’s 75-year-old Munich factory to go electric-only from 2027

One of BMW’s oldest factories – located in Munich, and which can trace its roots back to the 1920s – will switch to exclusively producing electric vehicles from 2027.

It is the fourth BMW factory confirmed to build the company’s next-generation range of electric vehicles – known as the Neue Klasse – joining a newly-built site in Hungary, and existing facilities in China and Mexico.

Production will begin with a “Neue Klasse sedan” – expected to be a 3 Series-sized model known as the i3 – in 2026, followed by other vehicles in the new range at a later date.

Initially the Neue Klasse car will be built in Munich alongside petrol and diesel-powered cars, but they are planned to reach the end of the road in 2027 – from which point the factory will be electric only.

The first vehicle to be produced at the Munich plant was the BMW 501 in 1952, according to the car giant – though it built buses and farm equipment in Munich as early as 1922.

BMW says the Munich plant is planned to maintain a production output of about 1000 vehicles per day whilst the Neue Klasse conversion takes place. 

The roll-out of Neue Klasse cars at the Munich factory contrasts its Hungary plant, which is due to begin with an X3-sized SUV in 2025 before adding the sedan the following year. 

“We are investing €650 million here and will produce exclusively all-electric vehicles in our parent plant from the end of 2027,” Milan Nedeljković, BMW head of production, said in a media statement.

This €650 million ($AU1.06 million) investment in Munich comprises four buildings, featuring a new vehicle assembly line, a new body shop, and logistics areas. 

The factories in Munich and Hungary are planned to be configured to BMW’s ‘iFactory’ standard, where artificial intelligence is used to speed up and optimise production.

BMW says Neue Klasse vehicles will also be produced in Shenyang, China and San Luis Potosí, Mexico in the future.