BMW TO SPEND $870 MILLION US TO MAKE EVs AND BATTERIES IN MEXICO

By Éric Descarries

German automaker BMW just announced that its assembly plant in San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico was due for a big expansion in order to include battery cell and EV “Neue Klasse” fully electric vehicle production. These EVs will include newly developed round lithium-ion battery cells designed by BMW to increase energy density by over 20 percent. They should also improve the rate of charge and overall range of EVs by 30 percent.

BMW’s plant in San Luis Potosí currently builds the BMW 3 Series, 2 Series Coupé and M2s but should ramp up battery production by 2027 as EV production is set to follow shortly thereafter. As these lines are written, the plant employs some 3,000 workers but the expansion will add another 1,000. Some 500 of them will make batteries as the other 500 will be on assembly lines helping to build batteries directly into the vehicle structure of the new EVs.