The BMW group, through the local ‘joint venture’ BMW Brilliance Automotive, has started activity at its new Lydia plant in Shenyang (China), which, with 15,000 million yuan (2,140 million euros at current exchange rates) , becomes the largest investment in the history of the German company in the Asian country.
As reported by BMW, the expansion of its industrial footprint in China is part of its BMW iFactory strategy. This factory has both pressing facilities and a body shop, paint shop and assembly shop.
The German company indicated that the start-up of this new plant will allow the company’s production capacity in Shenyang to be expanded to 830,000 vehicles per year. The new center has the flexibility to manufacture 100% electric cars. Thus, the BMW i3, which is already in production, is the first electric model without emissions from this factory.
The president and CEO of the BMW Group in the China region, Jochen Goller, said that the expansion of the company’s industrial footprint in China shows the company’s intention to grow in the world’s leading market for electric vehicles.
The new Lydia factory will contribute to the consortium’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 40% across the entire vehicle life cycle by 2030 compared to 2019.
The German multinational has the goal of having sold more than two million fully electric vehicles worldwide by 2025. In China, a quarter of the company’s deliveries will correspond to electric models.
