BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA), the BMW Group’s joint venture in China, marked its 20th anniversary on Thursday.
It also promised to invest more and localise its electromobility in the country.
During a press conference, the company said that the new-generation electric automobile Neue Klasse will be available in 2026 from its manufacturing base in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China.
The groundbreaking ceremony for BBA’s new battery production plant in Shenyang, which will cost a total of 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion), was held on Thursday.
The new model Neue Klasse will be powered by a sixth-generation high-voltage battery.
“I am pleased to announce today the start of local production of the Neue Klasse in China, 20 years after our joint venture began production.
“From a small assembly plant with a few units, our plants in Shenyang have grown to become the world’s largest production site,” said Milan Nedeljkovi, member of BMW AG’s board of management responsible for production.
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The BMW Shenyang Production Base and its projects have received approximately 100 billion yuan in investment since 2010, with production capacity increasing to 830,000 units per year.
Future Transportation Ecosystem
BBA’s purchase volume in China hit 73 billion yuan in 2022, with Liaoning Province accounting for more than 60%.
BBA also expanded BMW’s Shenyang R&D Center to help the company’s electro-mobility development.
With sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Nanjing, the BMW Group has created its largest R&D and innovation network outside of Germany in China.
It is also collaborating with prominent Chinese technology and electro-mobility firms, with a collaborative innovation center being constructed in Shanghai to investigate the future transportation ecosystem.
BBA presently has around 430 local suppliers in China, including more than 120 situated in Liaoning.
