BMW CEO Oliver Zipse has confirmed that a fully electric 3 Series will be added to the next generation of one of their flagship models. The model, built on an electric platform called Neue Klasse, will be manufactured at the Debrecen plant, the manager told autoevolution.com.
Although it was previously rumored that the Neu Klasse platform would also serve hybrid vehicles, Zipse noted, the architecture would only be used to make all-electric cars. Production of the model will begin sometime around 2025.
The new platform will be used predominantly for mid-range models, so BMW will extend the life of its internal combustion engines for other models, given that they are used on larger and heavier vehicles such as the latest 7 Series.
Regarding the new model, it is worth noting that unlike the BMW i3 currently available in China, which is essentially a Series 3 with the traditional powertrain replaced by an electric motor and battery pack, the Neue Klasse Series 3 is a completely new design that is expected to be larger and contains a battery pack like the Chinese i3 with 66.1 kWh. The development director of the Debrecen factory, Jochen Lorenzen, told hvg.hu last year that the plant was planned to produce 150,000 cars a year.
They will rely on robotics
The article in hvg.hu also mentions that the plant is planned to produce 150,000 cars a year. The unit will be built so that people, raw materials and finished vehicles will avoid each other as much as possible: the car parks will be south of the assembly hall, the raw materials will arrive at the north entrance, and the finished cars will leave via the railway terminal in the south-west of the site.
Robots will play a very important role in the Debrecen factory: ninety percent of the work in the body shop is done by machine workers, while in the painting department this proportion is around 50 percent.
debreceninap.hu
hvg.hu
