BMW have chosen the Landshut plant to make high-tech parts for the company’s upcoming, all-electric iNEXT. The main component that will be made there is the new and sensor-filled kidney grille for the iNEXT. It will integrate camera, radar and other sensor equipment to enable advanced driver assistance systems on the vehicle.
In fact, it was at the Landshut Lightweight Construction and Technology Centre that this particular kidney grille was developed.
Besides the grille, the Landshut plant will also build structural components out of carbon fibre compounds and housings made of light metals for drive motors. They’ve also developed a process that removes the need for rare earths in the electric drive system. Something Honda figured out years ago.
About the Landshut Plant
Back in 1967, BMW AG acquired the Hans Glas car company. At the time, the Landshut plant was just a small operation and BMW were more focused on the larger Dingolfing plant (that would eventually become their largest production site). But by the end of the 1960s, BMW started putting big plans in place for the plant. By the end of the 1970s, BMW Group Plant Landshut had its 1000th staff member.
As the decades wore on, the plant became more diversified, but also more focused on plastics. The end of the 1980s had BMW move their technical centre for plastics away from Munich and to Landshut. For a more in-depth look at the work this plant does on composite materials, check out this article.
PRESS RELEASE
The Lower Bavarian BMW Group Landshut plant again assumes its role as an innovation driver for the automotive future: With a number of important high-tech components, it will give the BMW iNEXT, which starts rolling off the assembly line in Dingolfing from 2021, a face. The BMW iNEXT is the BMW Group’s first all-electric production vehicle prepared for fully automated driving.
Today, Dr. Andreas Wendt, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Network, and Hubert Aiwanger, Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria and the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, opened a new production facility at the Landshut location. The innovative kidney grille – the “eye” – for the BMW iNEXT will be produced there.
The technologically complex kidney grille is vital for highly-automated driving: It allows the integration of camera technology, radar functions and further sensors required for highly developed driver assistance systems into the front end of the vehicle. The BMW Group Landshut is investing a total of over 50 million Euros in innovative components for the BMW iNEXT and further future vehicle models.
Broad spectrum of high-tech components from Landshut
The kidney grille for the BMW iNEXT was developed at the BMW Group’s Landshut Lightweight Construction and Technology Center (LuTZ) and is symbolic of the transformation of the sector: For the BMW iNEXT, the brand-characterising radiator grille will become a multifunctional, innovative high-tech component. Apart from the grille, the Landshut plant will also produce further innovative components for the cockpit and the electric drive system for the iNEXT, but also structural components made from carbon fibre compound materials such as CFRP, for example. The light metal casting department provides the housing for the future electric drive motor and also developed the globally unique Injector Casting Process (ICA), whereby the electric drive system for the BMW iNEXT does without rare earths.
