Preparations to launch the all-new BMW iNEXT progress at full swing. The company intends to start production of this new model in 2021 at its Dingolfing plant.
The other German plant – in Landshut, this month has started production of the first “high-tech components” for the iNEXT, which is envisioned as the first hardware-ready for autonomous driving.
Below we can see an all-new, huge, closed, multifunctional and lightweight kidney grille for the iNEXT – a central element in the automated driving system. It gives the iNEXT the face and the “eye”:
“The technologically complex kidney grille is vital for highly-automated driving: It allows the integration of camera technology, radar functions and further sensors required for highly developed driver assistance systems into the front end of the vehicle.”
Through an investment of more than €50 million, Landshut will produce multiple components for the next-generation BMW BEVs: components for the cockpit and electric drive system, as well as structural components made from carbon fiber compound materials.
“Apart from the grille, the Landshut plant will also produce further innovative components for the cockpit and the electric drive system for the iNEXT, but also structural components made from carbon fibre compound materials such as CFRP, for example. The light metal casting department provides the housing for the future electric drive motor and also developed the globally unique Injector Casting Process (ICA), whereby the electric drive system for the BMW iNEXT does without rare earths.”
Dr. Wolfgang Blümlhuber, Purchasing and Supplier Network, Senior Vice President Technology Driving Dynamics, Light Metal Casting said:
“Thanks to our in-house component manufacturing facility for lightweight construction and the technology centre here at this location, we have a genuine advantage over our competitors. We have industrialisation competence, we can develop strategically crucial innovations and at the same time reliably assess external partners and suppliers,”.
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