BMW invests in battery-cell centre

BMW has broken ground on a €200 million battery-cell centre of competence in its home city of Munich.

The company has confirmed it plans to sell 12 full electric cars by 2025, with another 13 electrified plug-in hybrids, and began work on the new facility to reduce its reliance on battery suppliers for deliver technical advancements.

"By producing battery-cell prototypes, we can analyse and fully understand the cell's value-creation processes,” BMW board member Oliver Zipse said today.

“With this build-to-print expertise, we can enable potential suppliers to produce cells to our specifications.

"The knowledge we gain is very important to us, regardless of whether we produce the battery cells ourselves, or not," he said.

In a shakeup of the core of its i brand, BMW has also sold its minority, 49-percent stake in SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers in Germany and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibres in the United States.

Carbon fibre from the two joint ventures was at the core of the only two i models BMW has ever built, the i3 and the i8, but it seems BMW’s future i plans will be less glued to the lightweight, but expensive, material.

It sold its share to the SGL Carbon’s majority stakeholder, SGL Carbon SE, in a deal signed off today.

“BMW Group will continue to rely on lightweight construction and an intelligent mix of materials, with carbon remaining a significant component,”

BMW Board member for purchasing and suppliers, Markus Duesmann, insisted.

“Carbon will also play an important role in the BMW iNEXT, which will set the benchmark for electric vehicles, autonomous driving, connectivity, and lightweight construction from 2021.

“SGL Group is and will remain a major supplier and strategic partner in this regard,” adds Duesmann.

The joint-venture, founded in 2009, has carbon-fibre manufacturing facilities in Moses Lake, in Washington State, and Wackersdorf in Bavaria and had revenues of €90 million last year.