BMW is one of the few automakers that lets you know whenever production of a new model starts. Coincidentally, it did just that earlier today with the 2 Series Gran Coupe assembled in Leipzig. A new video shot more than 6,000 miles away shows how the magic happens at the Araquari site. The Brazilian factory turns 10 this year, so the milestone is celebrated by allowing us to go behind the scenes.
Since it went operational in 2004, the plant has assembled more than 100,000 vehicles. The X1, 3 Series, and X4 are built there, with the plug-in hybrid X5 joining them before the year’s end. The drone footage shows how the cars come to life, from the body and paint shops, and heading to the final assembly and testing.
Located in the Santa Catarina state, the factory has a bright future as the BMW Group plans to invest BRL 1.8 billion between 2025 and 2028. At current exchange rates, that works out to around $310 million. Additional models are expected to roll off the assembly line at the Araquari later this decade. Fun fact – this is the only BMW factory in the world where cars are built with combustion engines, plug-in hybrids, and flex-fuel setups. The latter is a type of engine engineered to run on a gas/ethanol mix. Earlier this year, BMW said it would only need a short amount of time to make changes to the factory to accommodate EV production.
Plant Araquari is just one of the 32 sites where BMW cars and engines are built. Not all of them are owned by the company. Take for example Magna Steyr’s Graz facility in Austria where the Z4 roadster is made. A new factory fully owned by BMW will be operational in 2025. We’re talking about the Debrecen plant in Hungary where the Neue Klasse iX3 will be made.
Source: BMW
