The BMW iNext is set to become the new technological flagship of the Bavarian car maker. As we’ve been hearing a lot lately, the new electric model will come packed with new tech and will become the flagbearer for the company. In order for things to go smoothly, the Landshut location in Lower Bavaria is now making high-tech components for the iNext, focused on a wide array of topics, from air flow to automated driving.
Yesterday, a new production facility was open in Landshut in the company of VIPs. Dr. Andreas Wendt, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Network, and Hubert Aiwanger, Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria and the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, symbolically opened the location where next-level products will be made.
One of them will be the innovative, new, kidney grille dubbed ‘the eye’ by BMW. 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. The BMW Landshut facility is investing a total of over 50 million Euros in innovative components for the BMW iNEXT and further future vehicle models.
“Automated driving is a huge chance for Germany as an industrial location. With future-oriented technologies, we are generating decisive competitive advantages. Especially during the current transformation of our sector, our in-house component production at Landshut is assuming more than ever the role of an innovation hub,” said board member Wendt.
“In addition to highly automated driving, mobility of the future will be characterized by electric mobility and digitalisation – the BMW iNEXT is synonymous with all of this, as are Landshut and the BMW Group in Lower Bavaria.
For the BMW iNEXT, the brand-characterizing radiator grille will become a multi functional, innovative high-tech component. 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 fiber 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.
