BMW's first sixth-generation electric motors are ready

The engines, produced in Austria, will equip the Neue Klasse test vehicles manufactured in Hungary

BMW's Steyr plant produces the first electric motors

Photo by: BMW

By: Eleonora Lilli

Published by: Brian Potter

Dec 4, 2024 at 6:52am ET

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A few days ago we showed you what the BMW iX3 - the electric X3 of the 'new era', the first SUV based on the Neue Klasse platform- could look like. Now the German manufacturer announces that the first electric motor has been shipped from the BMW Group Steyr plant to the Debrecen factory in Hungary. Here the powertrain will be used in the Neue Klasse test vehicles.

"Our Steyr plant has been delivering the first sixth-generation electric motors to the development department in Munich since September," said Klaus von Moltke, SVP Engine Production at BMW AG and Managing Director of the BMW Group plant in Steyr. "We have also recently started to send our electric motors directly to the BMW Group plant in Debrecen, where they are installed in test vehicles.

Largest BMW engine plant

The Steyr site in Upper Austria is the BMW Group's largest engine plant in the world. It employs 4,700 people, producing more than one million petrol and diesel engines annually, and also includes a major centre for research and development of new powertrains.

In June 2022, the company announced that it would start production of e-drives in 2025, and three months ago, production of the first next-generation electric motors began.

The new assembly hall for electric motors at the BMW Group plant in Steyr

Helmut Hochsteiner, VP of Electric Engine Production at the BMW Group Steyr plant, said:

"In the coming months, we will continue to validate and optimise the complex production process for the new electric engines."

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A 4.0 factory

The delivery to Steyr's Debrecen electric motor plant is therefore the start of series production of both the Neue Klasse and its electric motors from Austria.

The BMW factory in Debrecen, Hungary

When fully operational, a production capacity of 150,000 units per year is estimated for the Debrecen factory, but more importantly it will have a neutral environmental balance to give further impetus to the plan to cut CO2 emissions per vehicle by 80% by 2030. This plan includes energy and water savings, renewable energies, recycling of waste production materials according to closed-loop processes and machinery and cars that are easy to repair and upgrade.

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