BMW is transforming its plants as it prepares to offer electric vehicles in all of its segments in the coming years.
That includes investing 400 million euros (about $437 million) in a new vehicle plant at the automaker’s main production site in Munich, Germany.
To make way for the new plant, which is expected to build some of BMW’s New Class EVs, an existing plant where the automaker has built 4-, 6-, 8- and 12-cylinder engines over the past six decades will be removed.
The plant is BMW’s only engine production site in Germany, and it built its last engine, a V-8, earlier this month. The news was first reported on Nov. 10 by local broadcaster BR24.
BMW isn’t giving up on the internal combustion engine just yet. The automaker continues to build engines at plants in Austria and the United Kingdom. Starting in 2020, BMW will move equipment and tools for engine production out of Germany.
While BMW is no longer building engines in Germany, it is adding production capacity for EV components, including motors and batteries. BMW already builds electric powertrains and battery packs in Dingolfing, Germany, and continues to expand capacity at the site.
Plants in the German cities of Leipzig and Regensburg have also been upgraded for EV component production in recent years, and the engine plant in Austria has also been prepared for EV component production.
