The BMW Group continues to expand its production network in Europe, with a new facility to be built in Hungary, close to the town of Debrecen. It will come at an investment of approximately 1 billion Euros and will offer capacity of up to 150,000 units a year and create over 1,000 new jobs.
Harald Kruger, Chairman of the BMW AG Board of Management said, "The BMW Group's decision to build this new plant reaffirms our perspective for global growth. After significant investments in China, Mexico and the USA, we are now strengthening our activities in Europe to maintain a worldwide balance of production between Asia, America and our home continent. Europe is the BMW Group's largest production location. In 2018 alone we are investing more than €1 billion in our German sites to upgrade and prepare them for electric mobility."
Europe is an important market for the company as in 2017 it accounted for almost 45 percent of all vehicle sales, with 1.1 million units sold. Up to the end of June 2018, the BMW Group grew in many markets across the continent, with vehicle deliveries totalling more than 560,000 units - a year-on-year rise of 1.2 per cent.
Oliver Zipse, BMW AG Board Member for Production, said "In the future, every BMW Group plant in Europe will be equipped to produce electrified as well as conventional vehicles. Our new plant in Hungary will also be able to manufacture both combustion and electrified BMW models - all on a single production line. It will bring greater capacity to our worldwide production network. When production commences, the plant will set new standards in flexibility, digitalisation and productivity."
The plant in Debrecen will set new standards in digitalisation, sustainability and flexibility. In addition, it will be a technology leader, with innovative solutions for automation, state-of-the-art assistance systems and flexible logistics applications. In keeping with the BMW Group's principle of the highly flexible production system, the new facility will manufacture conventionally as well as electrically powered vehicles, all on a single production line.
