BMW confirms vast factory will stop producing petrol cars after 75 years as it undergoes major change
BMW have confirmed that one of their factories will stop producing petrol cars after 75 years with a major change underway.
The car giant is investing around £560 million to convert its main plant in Munich to exclusively produce EVs from the end of 2027.
It is putting up four buildings including a new vehicle assembly line and body shop.
The German firm has confirmed that it will produce the first of its radical new Neue Klasse EVs in Munich from 2026.
The motor will be produced at the Bavarian facility alongside ICE models.
However, by the following year, the plant will be fully dedicated to EVs – although BMW has yet to specify which models it will produce.
The new EVs are saloons that BMW hope will serve as the next-generation 3 Series.
The motor is roughly the size of the carmaker’s current bestselling model line.
BMW has also moved traditional engine manufacturing to Britain and Austria, with 1,200 employees retrained or moved to other locations.
The German manufacturer has not set its own target for ending production of combustion engine cars.
However, it is coming up against a European Union regulation which effectively bans the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the bloc from 2035.
All-electric vehicles made up 15 per cent of the Munich-based carmaker’s sales in 2023, a ratio it expects to rise to a third by 2026.
Carmakers from Mercedes-Benz to Volkswagen have warned in recent months that EV sales are not developing as fast as expected.
It comes as Volkswagen revealed it will introduce a new ultra-affordable, entry-level EV in 2026, set to be the “spiritual successor” of an iconic model.
The new motor, dubbed the I.D.1 is expected to follow the £21,000 I.D.2 and compete with rivals like the Renault Twingo and Citroen e-C3.
The German brand confirmed that development is underway and showed off some initial sketches, emphasising their focus on producing a low-cost alternative to the rest of the I.D. range.
Meanwhile, green boxes across the UK are set to be transformed into EV charging points.
Old street cabinets which were traditionally used to keep broadband cabling will be converted into power banks as part of a BT Group pilot.
And the world’s first pothole repair robot, which uses AI to spot and fill the craters, has now hit UK roads.