Bojan Vrbnjak
Local for local: BMW refers to this principle and predicts that they will New Class from 2026 also produced on China. The announcement was made by the director of production Milan Nedeljkovic on the 20th anniversary of the joint venture between BMW and Brilliance. This joint venture, which is officially called BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA), the Neue Klasse model will also be produced in Shenyang.
Necessary drive batteries they will also be assembled on site. As part of the celebration anniversaries was also held virtual ceremony laying the foundation stone for the new battery assembly location. From 2026, battery cells will be next, by then sixth generation, assembled into high-voltage batteries. For this purpose, the company will BBA to a new location at China filed around 1,3 billion. As far as is known, the new cylindrical form factor cells are said to be used here 4695 in 46120. BMW does not want to produce these cells themselves, but they have not yet said who will supply them.
"Our factories in Shenyang have grown from a small assembly plant with only a few units to the largest production base in the world. Today, 20 years after our joint venture first started production, I am pleased to announce the local production of Neue Klasse models in China,” said a board member BMW for production Milan Nedeljkovic. The BMW Group has been represented on the Chinese market since 1994 and it's May 2003 established a joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive. Over the past 20 years, operations in China have expanded continuously. Thus, the production capacity in Shenyang increased from 30.000 to 830.000 units. BBA now produces seven model lines, including internal combustion engines, plug-in hybrids and electric cars.
Production of models New Class in China and the expansion of battery production are part of the program electrification of BMW. With this in mind, before 2030, more than half of global vehicle sales are expected to be exclusively electric cars. The first model from New Class will be a mid-size sedan (probably called BMW i3) and mid-size SUVs (probably iX3 successor). From year 2025 they will be manufactured in Hungary Debrecen, from year 2026 in the main factory in Munich and Chinese Shenyang and from the year 2027 in a Mexican city San Luis Potosi. From the year at the latest 2030 and Neue Klasse should also be produced in USA namely in the city Spartanburg in South Carolina. Battery cells for BMW's American vehicles will come from the company Envision AESC.
