BMW opens Plant Irlbach-Straßkirchen, starting Gen6 battery production for the Neue Klasse i3
BMW Group has officially opened its new Plant Irlbach-Straßkirchen in Bavaria, where series production of sixth-generation high-voltage batteries for the BMW i3 has begun on two shifts.
- Around 1 billion euros
- 108.7 kWh
- Up to 906 km
- Up to 400 kW
What Happened
The BMW Group officially opened its new Plant Irlbach-Straßkirchen in Bavaria today, marking the start of series production. The site is already supplying sixth-generation (Gen6) high-voltage batteries to BMW Group Plant Munich for installation in the BMW i3, and because of strong demand for Neue Klasse models the ramp-up has progressed faster than originally planned, with series production immediately running on a two-shift basis. Once fully operational, around 1,600 employees will work at the plant, producing several hundred high-voltage batteries per day on two production lines. The BMW Group invested around one billion euros in the facility.
“The new plant plays a key role in our production network: As the central platform, it will supply our German vehicle plants with sixth-generation high-voltage batteries. In this way, our high-tech plant in Irlbach-Straßkirchen is making a vital contribution to the ramp-up of the Neue Klasse.”
The municipality of Straßkirchen holds a referendum on building the plant; more than 75 percent of residents approve, with voter turnout of around 77 percent.
Construction begins on the 60-hectare site.
The Cell Recycling Competence Center (CRCC) in Salching, 16 kilometres from Straßkirchen, goes into operation.
The first pre-series battery is produced, less than two years after construction started.
BMW officially opens the plant and starts series production of Gen6 high-voltage batteries.
BMW developed the Gen6 high-voltage battery in-house, integrating new cylindrical round cells directly into the battery under the cell-to-pack principle, with the battery itself forming part of the body structure in a pack-to-open-body concept. All production steps are continuously monitored inline and documented in real time, and in-house developed AI assistants and agents analyse that data together with 500 robots working across a 50,000-square-metre production area to help ensure zero-defect battery production. The extensive use of artificial intelligence also enhances Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). More than 3,500 data points per battery are collected and monitored in real time, and BMW has filed patent applications for more than 500 innovations in developing the sixth generation of BMW eDrive technology. Digital twins of production and virtual reality applications supported planning and employee training well before commissioning.
Plant Irlbach-Straßkirchen requires no fossil fuels for regular operations: a photovoltaic system generates a share of the electricity directly on site, all additional energy comes from renewable sources, and no water is required to assemble the high-voltage batteries. The Gen6 cells for the BMW i3 rely on secondary materials for a portion of their cobalt, lithium and nickel, renewable energy is used in producing anode and cathode materials and in cell manufacturing, and CO2e emissions per watt-hour are about 33 percent lower than for the Gen5 cell in the previous model. The plant is part of BMW's Bavarian battery network spanning research, production and recycling. Pilot plants for high-voltage batteries in Parsdorf and Hallbergmoos and the Research and Innovation Center (FIZ) in Munich assemble Neue Klasse battery prototypes and develop and test production processes, while the Battery Cell Competence Center in Munich explores new cell technologies and the Cell Manufacturing Competence Center in Parsdorf manufactures and tests cells under near-series conditions. The Cell Recycling Competence Center in Salching recovers valuable raw materials using a direct recycling concept that avoids energy-intensive chemical or thermal processing; it is built and operated by Encory GmbH, while the intellectual property for the recycling method is owned by the BMW Group.
- Alongside Irlbach-Straßkirchen, Gen6 high-voltage battery assembly plants have been built in Debrecen (Hungary), Shenyang (China), Woodruff (USA) and San Luis Potosí (Mexico), close to vehicle plants under BMW's local for local principle.
- All directly contracted construction companies for Irlbach-Straßkirchen came from Germany, with two thirds from Bavaria.
- More than three quarters of the plant engineering firms are from Germany, with one third based in Bavaria.
- The local for local approach keeps distances between battery and vehicle plants short and helps strengthen regional infrastructure, existing facilities and jobs.
- About 40 percent of all BMW cars ever produced were built at the vehicle plants in Dingolfing and Regensburg, and about a fifth of the company's global workforce is employed at Plants Dingolfing, Regensburg, Landshut and Irlbach-Straßkirchen.
- 108.7 kWh capacity; pack-to-open-body concept makes the housing part of the vehicle structure
- Up to 906 km for the BMW i3 50 xDrive First Edition
- 800-volt technology; up to 400 kW DC charging adding up to 423 km of range in 10 minutes (ISO 12906, WLTP cycle); bidirectional charging supported
Previously from BMW
BMW unveiled the new 3 Series in late September 2026, and the first fully electric member of that range is the Neue Klasse-based i3, sold alongside petrol variants with a plug-in hybrid to follow. Our earlier summary of that launch cited up to 912 km of WLTP range for the i3.
Background drawn from MotorClaw's earlier coverage of BMW's official releases.
Why this matters
The plant is BMW's central battery supplier for its German vehicle plants as the Neue Klasse ramps up, so its output feeds directly into how many electric BMWs the company can build. BMW frames the roughly one-billion-euro site and its local-for-local supply chain as a signal for Germany as an industrial location, and around 1,600 jobs are planned there once it is fully operational.
Terms in This Story
- cell-to-pack
- A battery design approach in which individual cells are integrated directly into the battery pack instead of first being assembled into separate modules.
- pack-to-open-body
- A structural battery concept in which the battery pack becomes an integral part of the vehicle's body structure.
- WLTP test cycle
- The Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure, a standardised test cycle used to measure range and emissions of passenger cars.
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
- A manufacturing metric for how effectively production equipment is used, combining availability, performance and quality.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.