The BMW Group plans to open its planned Cell Manufacturing Competence Centre (CMCC) in Parsdorf near Munich in autumn this year.
Now that the immission control approval procedure has been completed, the conditions are in place for the commissioning of a near-series production facility for lithium-ion battery cells. The competence centre is being built on an area of 15,000 square metres in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg, east of Munich.
According to BMW, the pilot line in the centre of excellence will enable it to fully analyse and understand the value-added processes of the cell. This should help the car manufacturer to enable future suppliers in cell production according to its own specifications and thus further optimise the production of battery cells in terms of quality, performance and costs. Last year, the engineering company Manz was awarded the contract to set up a battery production line on site.
In the first phase of the ramp-up, the equipment for electrode production is to be installed and run in. Raw materials such as graphite or nickel oxides for the battery electrodes are metered and mixed there. This is followed by the coating of the metal foils and the final compaction.
The investments for the first expansion stage of the competence centre for battery cell production amount to about 170 million euros. About 80 employees will work at the Parsdorf site. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy are supporting the project as part of the European funding process IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest).
The second phase involves the installation of the equipment for the subsequent cell assembly and formation. There, the electrodes are processed into battery cells together with the other sub-components, formed and their quality tested. The entire ramp-up process will take about a year. In the course of next year, the near-series battery cell production at the centre of excellence is to go into regular operation.
The BMW Group intends to produce battery cell samples there for the next generation of battery technology to be used in the “New Class“. The energy density of the future generation of lithium-ion cells is to be significantly increased and the costs for the use of materials and in production are to be reduced at the same time.
However, the company currently rules out its own large-scale battery cell production. The BMW Group purchases these from various cell manufacturers. The “further value creation takes place at the car manufacturer”, as BMW states. This refers to the preparation of the cells for installation in modules and their final assembly in a high-voltage battery. The production of electric drive components is spread across numerous locations in the BMW Group’s production network. For example, high-voltage batteries, battery modules and components are now produced in Germany at the Dingolfing, Regensburg and Leipzig plants. Other e-drive scopes are located at the Spartanburg plant in the USA and at the BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture in China.
Keyword: BMW to open battery competence centre in autumn