BMW I3 Production - Leipzig. Subscribe.
The BMW Group entered a new era in automotive construction today with the start of series production of the BMW i3. The world’s first premium electric vehicle to be purpose-designed for this form of drive system is the result of an all-encompassing development approach targeted at reducing fuel consumption and emissions in urban areas. Exceptionally high standards of sustainability and resource efficiency have also been achieved in the selection of materials and production processes employed. This is the first time that carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been used in automotive volume production. The body structure of the BMW i3 consists entirely of this extremely lightweight and durable material, allowing the extra weight of the batteries for the electric drive system to be cancelled out. By industrialising the manufacturing process for CFRP, the BMW Group has become the first company worldwide to make its use in vehicle production economically viable.
At the Leipzig plant alone, some €400 million has been invested in new structures and machinery for the production of BMW i models and 800 new jobs have been created. The production network for BMW i also sees key components for the BMW i3 manufactured at BMW Group plants and joint venture facilities at Moses Lake in the USA and Wackersdorf, Landshut and Dingolfing in Germany. The company has invested a total of around €600 million in the BMW i production network and generated over 1,500 jobs.
Series production of the BMW i3 got under way today in the presence of the Minister President of the state of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, and BMW AG Board Member for Production, Harald Krüger. The first BMW i3 off the line has been recruited as the lead car for the International Berlin Marathon on 29 September and was handed over to German marathon runner Jan Fitschen. Deliveries of the BMW i3 to customers in Germany and other European countries will begin in November, with the car’s launch in the USA, China and other markets to follow in early 2014.
“Today represents a milestone in our company’s development,” said BMW production chief Krüger. “We are making history with the BMW i3. Not only is our first electric car about to hit the road, we are also completely redefining sustainability with regard to personal mobility thanks to groundbreaking technologies and processes.” Indeed, the entire value chain is firmly committed to sustainability and efficiency: “We require 50% less energy and 70% less water, and source the electric energy for production of the BMW i models CO2-free from the wind turbines at the plant,” added Krüger. This huge reduction in energy and water consumption can be attributed primarily to the elimination of the traditional painting process for steel and aluminium bodies.
Stanislaw Tillich was delighted that this new chapter in automotive history would be written in the federal state he heads: “I’m proud that, in BMW, we have such an innovative carmaker here in Saxony and that BMW is building the i3 at its plant here in Leipzig. This proves that Saxony is an attractive location in terms of its research and educational institutions, its infrastructure and, most importantly, its highly qualified and motivated people.”
Leipzig’s mayor Burkhard Jung concurred: “The BMW plant has been a boon for our city from the beginning and continues to act as a growth engine for jobs. With BMW also basing production of its electric vehicles here, the prospects for the local area are extremely healthy.”
The BMW Group entered a new era in automotive construction today with the start of series production of the BMW i3. The world’s first premium electric vehicle to be purpose-designed for this form of drive system is the result of an all-encompassing development approach targeted at reducing fuel consumption and emissions in urban areas. Exceptionally high standards of sustainability and resource efficiency have also been achieved in the selection of materials and production processes employed. This is the first time that carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been used in automotive volume production. The body structure of the BMW i3 consists entirely of this extremely lightweight and durable material, allowing the extra weight of the batteries for the electric drive system to be cancelled out. By industrialising the manufacturing process for CFRP, the BMW Group has become the first company worldwide to make its use in vehicle production economically viable.
At the Leipzig plant alone, some €400 million has been invested in new structures and machinery for the production of BMW i models and 800 new jobs have been created. The production network for BMW i also sees key components for the BMW i3 manufactured at BMW Group plants and joint venture facilities at Moses Lake in the USA and Wackersdorf, Landshut and Dingolfing in Germany. The company has invested a total of around €600 million in the BMW i production network and generated over 1,500 jobs.
Series production of the BMW i3 got under way today in the presence of the Minister President of the state of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, and BMW AG Board Member for Production, Harald Krüger. The first BMW i3 off the line has been recruited as the lead car for the International Berlin Marathon on 29 September and was handed over to German marathon runner Jan Fitschen. Deliveries of the BMW i3 to customers in Germany and other European countries will begin in November, with the car’s launch in the USA, China and other markets to follow in early 2014.
“Today represents a milestone in our company’s development,” said BMW production chief Krüger. “We are making history with the BMW i3. Not only is our first electric car about to hit the road, we are also completely redefining sustainability with regard to personal mobility thanks to groundbreaking technologies and processes.” Indeed, the entire value chain is firmly committed to sustainability and efficiency: “We require 50% less energy and 70% less water, and source the electric energy for production of the BMW i models CO2-free from the wind turbines at the plant,” added Krüger. This huge reduction in energy and water consumption can be attributed primarily to the elimination of the traditional painting process for steel and aluminium bodies.
Stanislaw Tillich was delighted that this new chapter in automotive history would be written in the federal state he heads: “I’m proud that, in BMW, we have such an innovative carmaker here in Saxony and that BMW is building the i3 at its plant here in Leipzig. This proves that Saxony is an attractive location in terms of its research and educational institutions, its infrastructure and, most importantly, its highly qualified and motivated people.”
Leipzig’s mayor Burkhard Jung concurred: “The BMW plant has been a boon for our city from the beginning and continues to act as a growth engine for jobs. With BMW also basing production of its electric vehicles here, the prospects for the local area are extremely healthy.”
Ed209 finally got a job...
How much is it in dollars?
Hässlich und teuer...na wer's mag
Insane technology!
One of the many reasons I bought an i3 in 2019 was its unique design and construction. Making cars out of tin cans seems so old fashioned compared to this. A vehicle that will not rust, a body that resists those annoying car park dings, a light weight, high strength passenger cell make of carbon fibre - this is the stuff of super-cars, but you can buy one today for sensible money. It cost peanuts to run, produces no tailpipe emissions and requires almost no maintenance. The battery degradation many claimed would be a major issue has proved a damp squib- no one is having an issue.
Slience 🤖@work
As in every german car factory, the robots are sooo bad programmed....i dont believe, that nobody see that.....
طببطظططظ
I like how the car is a Body-On-Frame
m oste pra gente a fabrioa de robôs!!!
4:13 what's this???
heat; they basically shrinkwrap the battery cells
now u can see exactly y BMW is so expensive
BMW aut
a dodjite u srbiju da vidie u kakvim robovlasnickim uslovima se proizvode kablovi za bmw,gde radnik radi u nehumanim uslovima za platu od 250 eura mesecno.
I have one and it's a great car. Luckily I have a lot of "free" electrical charging points available here in Ireland. The heating and air con systems are rubbish though. It draws so many comments that I wait for there to be no passers by when I exit the car. It gets a bit wearisome answering the same questions.
such a waste of carbon fibre
We all prepare for cars of the future
Magnifico, 75% de personal al desempleo, y vehículos 175% mas caros, quien los comprara?Los gobiernos los ejércitos las ONG etc. me encanta la robotica.
Sorry but this car is not BMW xD . This is Melex
shut up
impressionante essas maquinas
Electric cars?. How come nobody is worry about the millions and millions of batteries that will have to be disposed of at the end of their productive live creating an enormous pollution problem to the earth when the cars are massified in the use around the world
because you dont have to dispose them; batteries can be recycled very well
how many vehicles a day ?
Ihr Gaylords… zeigt mal die Akku-Produktion.
wird doch eingekauft. glaube nicht das BMW eine eigene Batterieentwicklung hat
I3 look is not good👎👎👎
Looks super and amazing.
The most impresive is the use of the AGVs instead of the typical coveyor belt
the last parts seems to have looped back/doubled.
stone age, starts from battery,stone age motor, and whole car looks like soap box looks like germans forgot how to make quality cars,sells only old good badge
very nice look
Pretty sure this is where SkyNet becomes self aware..
my truck watched this.. it is now optimus prime. lol
wow really hurts robots time when space to work compromised, in future just make all surfaces carbon.
I would have brought it too, but the range is to small
They come with a range extender
very impressive!, too bad the I3 is such an ugly car
i3 with ugly bicycle tyres.
shut up, trump's mouth
Am I wrong if I think carbon fiber is awesome for one-off projects, but unsuitable for mass production?
@irmux skeptic Challenges - not problems.
too much left over materials=too much garbage/too expensive=germans make owns rules and later cannot pass them by self too much work if want good looking stitches fit carbon that extra like 6 times work also some problems with paint also they count "car life time" left factory-get to junkyard time its around 3 years =what to do with old carbon fiber? if car rare it will be market but if car like this soap box is no use -better made is from easy to recycle materials
18:20
3:47
all that work for a car no one wants
over 150k sold (mostly in Europe). It's totally undesirable bruh.
e l all that money for a child that no one wants
สุดยอดหุ่นยนต์
As a chartered engineer I find the video remarkable. Most steps are shown from laminating the carbon fibre to final despatch of the vehicle. The automated stages are most impressive with robotic, high speed manufacture. I was surprised at the poor ergonomics with people walking back and forth to put trim pieces in their hangers. The final assembly really needs work. Far too many people ambling about with no real urgency. I know it's hard to automate this part of the process but a few good Foremen / Managers could get more out at vastly reduced cost. Overall, a superb piece of work, thanks.
Amazing:)
Great!!!!
would love to know how much time that carbon fiber section passed into that final press curing.
minutes see autoline after hours with sandy munroe i3 teardown
Current battery technology greatly handicaps the flexibility of electric cars. Batteries need to improve before the electric car is going to make sense as an all-around usable vehicle. Don't want to stop every couple hours to charge batteries. My time is more valuable than that. I guess you can just sit there and run the heater or a/c while you're waiting for the batteries to recharge all the while discharging the batteries while trying to stay comfortable in winter or summer. If it's a nice day you can sort of walk around and get some exercise if the charging area has such a space available. Or, you can just stop and rent a hotel room every few hours so you'll have somewhere comfortable to wait while recharging - and can probably do that for just a $100 or so. And, current production methods show this electric vehicle creates a dirtier environment because of the hazardous materials used in battery production than in a gasoline-powered vehicle and in disposal costs.
Tesla Model X 90D and the Jaguar I-Pace can drive for 420 miles with one 40 minute 80% charge A Hyundai Kona recently went for a 605-mile drive with two 45 minute charging stops. Porsche claim to be soon going to release a car which can drive for 540 miles with one 15 minute 80% recharge. Aircon uses about 200 to 300Watts - so the cars can charge around 500 times faster than the aircon uses up the charge. Running the aircon during a re-charge would prolong a 40 minute charge by a extra 20 seconds or so. A 40 minute charge stop in a Battery Electric Vehicle is equivalent to a 35 minute food and loo break in an Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle. (In the ICEV you need an extra 5 minutes to go get fuel - in the BEV you get the recharge while you go off an do other things.)
this makes me appreciate my i3 even more so. it's interesting how the humans do less technical work than the robots.
É o fim das fabricas que conhecemos Que nossos filhos vão fazer?.
Wonder who writes the software that runs the robots
Looks like ABB did the automation, we use ABB in our control center in chemical manufacturing, the system is really precise, we only need one ABB software engineer to maintain the code on our whole facility.
Amazing what the human mind can invent to enable production of a car
Mezmerizing.
I used to work at a car manufacturing plant, it is very impressive and the robots some of the size of 2 á 3 humans working with four together in a fast manner is also very impressive. Those robots are scary and majestic at the same time.
Great video, so why are they so expensive ? don't say Technology, Air-fix have been doing this for decades....lol
Amazing technology BMW
Still below 100 Miles range.. No thanks!
You have to consider the customer, I have a i3 that use for in town commuting, I get about 130 miles with the range extender. I almost never have to use the REX. If I need to go further I have a Tacoma I can use. I drive the i3 95% of the time, my current electricity rate is 7.2 cents per Kh hour, this has cut my gas bill 75% and because I’m on a flat rate electricy plan up to 2000 kWh, I see 0 increased cost. So, for me, this car is wonderful, I’ve had zero maintenance issues, it’s been a real pleasure.
Is the BMW I3 production in the Leipzig building once known as the GLASS FACTORY?
I am assuming you mean the transparent factory ("Glaeserne Fabrik"); that's actually a VW factory, however also in Leipzig
Very likely, some of the workers in the video speak with a Saxony accent.
how therapeutic to watch modern day slaves. and a bunch of robots pump out endless garbage no one needs .
yeah ,also at expense of workers who have to work almost non-stop, like slaves to produce and consume more and more worthless junk , which they bought with debt. like this is how today's society works . Work ,buy everything brand new every 5 yrs and most importantly obey your masters. With debt they assure you will work , be quiet and fear for your job.
... sad reality : humankind is pouting out endless garbage in sacrifice of natural resources ... ¿ whter wasted as cutting device ? ...unbelievable ....
4:01 whats going on here? Is it a cleaning process?
It's a plasma treatment. It activates the plastic surface for better adhesive bonding.
Fantastic !!!
Welcome Electric Bye Bye Petrol LOL
Depends on how valuable your time is. Personally, I wouldn't want to sit around at a charging station for a couple hours so I can continue on for 75 or so more miles until I have to stop again for a couple hours. Battery technology is going to need to improve greatly for this vehicle to make sense as a totally usable car. I suppose you could spend the $50,000 for this car and just rent a car whenever you need a vehicle to do what this one won't.
by the time you add up all the emissions to make the equipment in the factory, and all the parts, its already more than a gas vehicle put out in the 50's.
oh you think a petrol car just springs into existence without a factory? moronic argument
Just to make 1 battery pack for a Tesla Model S...the carbon footprint is equal to driving a 5.7 Hemi Charger Sedan for 7 years. The Environmental-Nazis (green folks) will call you racist,etc. when you challenge them on their EVs actual impact on the Environment...EVs burn fossil fuel to keep them going. Hybrids make sense? Surely. But an EV still uses lots of fossil fuel....and not the clean kind....as Coal is the most abundant and cost effective means of generating electricity Globally. Nuke,wind farms,solar,hydro,natural gas,etc.....only amount to 20% globally. Even the best new Coal plants with high-tech scrubbers still pump untold amounts of mercury,CO2, and many other heavy metals and toxins into the atmosphere. Green folks only care if it's "NIMBI"...."not in my backyard"....air pollution aka....carbon-footprint is still there driving EVs.
of course, wasting petrol is way more efficient than paving new ways for EV industry. And what do you think about oil platforms, fracking etc..much better eh.
Ugly car.
Fascinating to watch!
@ChromoFed ABB and Kuka
Who manufactures the orange robots?
Fascinating, and better for having no musical accompaniment or silly drawling American narration ("wow!" "awesome!")
No American narrator speaking with a weird German accent.
Amen
At 57:28 ...Is that a blue flame?
yes; if you check it out there is a couple of times when they use flames to heat the material itself or reduce dry time of adhesives/paints
車子可以買就好了你們的車很好😃😊
Emre
What an amazing video! I wonder how the engineers and IT guys got that all to work?
They got "a bit of help" from ABB, Kuka, Siemens and all the other suppliers. BMW don't make robots.
fartman crack, I'm a joiner. i make small items of old English furniture using English native timber like sweet chestnut, elm, oak i also have to look after my 79year old mum since my dad kicked it and her heart wanted to give up too and ive had to move close to her even tho my other siblings allready do im going to look after her just so they cant get their hands on her cash which seems to be the only thing they're interested in what do you do ?
So you could do this?
fartblaster. a bunch of code writers and a bunch of builders /fitters that's a 4 yr olds question
I can't imagine how smart these people are. Frickin geniuses.
this badly needs some annotation of what's going on at each step... but still very cool to watch
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ᖴᖇᖶᖻᑘ
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ᑢᐺᕼᕼᕼ
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