From the left: Senior Vice President BMW Leipzig Plant, Manfred Erlacher, Minister President of the state of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, BMW AG Board Member for Production, Harald Krüger, Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, and Head of Production Electric Vehicles, Dr. Helmut Schramm (Credit: BMW Group)This week the BMW Group has started the series production of the BMW i3 electric car in Leipzig (Germany). By industrializing the manufacturing process for carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), the BMW Group has become the first company worldwide to make its use in vehicle production economically viable.
The electric vehicle was purpose-designed for this form of drive system. According to the press-release, high standards of sustainability and resource efficiency have been achieved in the selection of materials and production processes employed. This is the first time that CFRP has been used in automotive volume production. The body structure of the BMW i3 consists entirely of this extremely lightweight and durable material, allowing the extra weight of the batteries for the electric drive system to be canceled out.
At the Leipzig plant alone, some €400 million ($541 million) has been invested in new structures and machinery for the BMW i8 and BMW i3 series production and 800 new jobs have been created. The production network for BMW i also sees key components for the BMW i3 manufactured at BMW Group plants and joint venture facilities at Moses Lake, WA and Wackersdorf, Landshut and Dingolfing in Germany. The company has invested a total of around €600 million ($811 million) in the BMW i production network and generated over 1,500 jobs.
An assembly line on the BMW i3 production plant in Leipzig. (Credit: BMW Group)
The BMW i3 series production got under way this week in the presence of the Minister President of the state of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, and BMW AG Board Member for Production, Harald Krüger. The first BMW i3 off the line has been recruited as the lead car for the International Berlin Marathon on 29 September and was handed over to German marathon runner Jan Fitschen. Deliveries of the BMW i3 to customers in Germany and other European countries will begin in November, with the car’s launch in the USA, China and other markets to follow in early 2014.
“Today represents a milestone in our company’s development,” said BMW production chief Krüger. “We are making history with the BMW i3. Not only is our first electric car about to hit the road, we are also completely redefining sustainability with regard to personal mobility thanks to groundbreaking technologies and processes.” Indeed, the entire value chain is firmly committed to sustainability and efficiency: “We require 50% less energy and 70% less water, and source the electric energy for production of the BMW i models CO2-free from the wind turbines at the plant,” added Krüger. This huge reduction in energy and water consumption can be attributed primarily to the elimination of the traditional painting process for steel and aluminum bodies.
Earlier we compared the BMW i3 to Tesla’s Model S.
