BMW: investment in batteries and electric cars in Mexico
BMW announced this Friday an investment of 866 million dollars in Mexico to produce batteries and electric cars.
The investment will be made in the state of San Luis Potosi, with the generation of around 1,000 jobs.
Despite the challenging business environment, the BMW Group can boast a successful third quarter of 2022, reflecting in part the increased electrification across the Group’s product portfolio.
The contribution of all-electric models during the nine-month period was particularly strong, with deliveries of BMW and MINI brand models up 114.8% year-on-year to 128,1951 units, more than double the previous year’s figure.
The share of all-electric vehicles in total deliveries increased to 7.3% (2021: 3.1%; +135.5%).
Also total deliveries of BEV and PHEV models of the BMW Group were significantly higher, rising to 283,2841 units for the nine-month period (2021: 231,5751 units; +22.3 percent).
Thus, the share of electrified vehicles in total deliveries during this period increased to 16.2 percent (2021: 12.0 percent; +35.0 percent).
BMW
The company‘s investments announced for Mexico are equivalent to 800 million euros, of which 500 million euros will be used to build a lithium battery assembly center on the site of the existing BMW plant.
The remaining 300 million will be to adapt and expand a body shop to produce the «Neue Klasse» line of all-electric cars, and to build a new assembly line to install the battery packs.
The company’s research and development expenses of EUR 4,894 million in the first nine months of last year (2021: EUR 4,369 million; +12.0 percent) were appreciably higher than a year earlier. In contrast, the research and development ratio for the nine-month period declined due to the higher level of revenues.
Research and development expenses were mainly spent on new models (such as the NEUE KLASSE), the electrification and digitalization of the vehicle fleet, as well as automated driving.
Group profit before tax for the nine-month period amounted to € 20,256 million (2021: € 13,153 million, third quarter 2022: € 4,100 million, 2021: € 3,417 million).
