As dozens of brand-new BMWs sat atop a freight train, leaving the Landshut BMW plant, a damaged piece of metal on the overhead line fell down and destroyed every BMW on the top deck. The giant piece of metal sliced through the top of dozens of brand-new Bimmers, completely totaling them, which seems like such a wasteful accident during a time when new car deliveries are scarce.
Thankfully, all of the BMWs on the lower deck of the freight train were fine, as their siblings above them took the sacrificial slicing. With chip shortages and supply chain issues stalling the deliveries of new cars to customers around the world, this has to be incredibly frustrating for both BMW and its buyers. Imagine ordering a new BMW—an expensive one, too, many of these Bimmers were nice 5 Series’—waiting ages for it to begin production and when it’s finally on its way, a big piece of metal can-opens their lids? That has to be rough.
Fortunately for BMW, and the customers of the destroyed cars, most of the important bits of the cars are fine. Engines, transmissions, most of their chips, screens, and tech are all fine, so BMW can pull those hard-to-source items from the damaged cars and use them to make new ones. The parts that were damaged, such as body panels and interior materials, can easily be replaced. Which means that, hopefully, the customers of these damaged cars won’t have to wait too long to get replacements.
Although, due to the damaged rail line, the transportation of vehicles from Dingolfing to Landshut must be suspended for a few days, while the overhead line is repaired. The damage is quite extension, apparently stretching over a kilometer, so it will take some time to fix. Let’s hope it can get fixed quickly so that deliveries aren’t delays too much longer than they already have been.
[Source: BimmerToday]
