BMW Group To Make investments $1.7B In US For EV And Battery Cell Manufacturing

BMW Group introduced it’s investing $1.7 billion within the US. The cash will go towards constructing a brand new battery cell manufacturing facility and readying the automaker’s South Carolina plant to provide electrical automobiles.

Some $1 billion will go to upgrading the corporate’s Spartanburg facility, the place the corporate plans to provide six electrical automobiles by 2030. The opposite $700 million will go to constructing the brand new battery plant in close by Woodruff, South Carolina. The brand new manufacturing facility, which Envision AESC will construct, will cowl 1 million sq. ft and create 300 new jobs.

The battery manufacturing facility will produce the automaker’s new spherical lithium-ion battery cells. BMW guarantees 30 % extra vary with the brand new batteries whereas lowering costs by as much as 50 %, which BMW believes is required to increase EV adoption. The brand new cell expertise is 20 % denser and will enhance cost instances by 30 %. Their manufacturing may even cut back CO2 emissions by as much as 60 % attributable to utilizing recycled materials and renewable vitality sources. The brand new plant could have an annual capability of as much as 30 gigawatt-hours.

BMW’s Spartanburg manufacturing facility already produces battery modules for the BMW X3 and X4 plug-in hybrids. Final 12 months, BMW constructed practically 70,000 electrified fashions on the website. BMW established the manufacturing facility 30 years in the past and has been producing automobiles at it for 28. It employs greater than 11,000 folks and might produce as much as 450,000 automobiles yearly. It at present makes 11 fashions, with BMW XM manufacturing beginning on the plant later this 12 months.

BMW is simply the newest automaker to announce investing within the US. Final week, Honda and LE Power Answer introduced the 2 would construct a 40-GWh battery plant in Ohio, which might value as much as $4.4 billion. In September, Toyota introduced a $2.5 billion funding for its US battery manufacturing facility.

BMW has already introduced that 4 further battery cell factories shall be inbuilt Europe and China, every with an annual capability of 20 GWh. Because the trade shifts, we anticipate extra automakers to announce investments designed to bolster EV manufacturing.