July 20 was a red-letter day for BMW Group’s nearly 40-year-old Regensburg plant, as the one-millionth BMW X1 rolled off the assembly line. The milestone vehicle is a BMW iX1 battery electric vehicle (BEV) in Alpine White. The X1 is BMW’s smallest Sports Activity Vehicle – and became the first fully-electric model produced at the BMW Group location in Regensburg in November 2022.
“The BMW iX1 is proof that we can build highly attractive electric vehicles for the premium compact class at our plant in Regensburg. This a very popular car with customers around the world,” said Plant Director Carsten Regent. “To meet different market requirements worldwide, we rely as a company on technological diversity. Specifically, here in Regensburg, we have the flexibility to produce different types of drivetrain for the BMW X1 on a single production line – models with a combustion engine and plug-in hybrid systems, as well as with a pure electric drive
From the end of this year, BMW Group Plant Regensburg will also produce a second BEV – the fully-electric BMW iX2, in Upper Palatinate for the high-volume compact class. “Electromobility is a growth driver for our plant. We are currently operating at full capacity and hope this trend will continue,” says Regent.
As previously announced in March, the BMW Group will invest more than 350 million euros in vehicle production in Regensburg by the end of the year, creating permanent jobs for around 500 new employees.
A total of up to 1,000 units of the BMW 1 Series, BMW X1 and BMW X2 models are currently coming off the production line at Plant Regensburg every workday, destined for customers all over the world. BMW Group Plant Regensburg recently became the automotive industry’s first plant worldwide to use an end-to-end digitalised and automated process for inspection, processing and marking of painted vehicle surfaces in standard production that relies on robots controlled by AI (artificial intelligence). The resulting ‘digital twin’ of BMW Group Plant Regensburg enables highly efficient planning of future plant structures and production facilities.