All (Robot) Hands on Deck

BMW leverages advanced manufacturing, AI and machine learning to build the next generation of EVs – and vehicles of all powertrains.

April 15, 2025

Abigail Bassett

An example of one of the processes of the aluminum going into the sand mold at BMW’s electric engine housing production facility in Landshut, Germany. (Tom Kirkpatrick Photography/BMW)

For more than 100 years, BMW has been manufacturing vehicles in the heart of downtown Munich at a three-story plant that currently produces 1,000 cars a day. At the same time, the plant is in a state of being both torn down and completely rebuilt and retrofitted – to the tune of a $4.3-million investment – to make way for the electrified future the company says it is deeply committed to.

Each Energy Master includes a control unit, a relay box with 800v/400v actuators, cooling and an on-board power supply. (Tom Kirkpatrick Photography/BMW)

To stay this course, in a time when there are increasing headwinds against electrification and EVs, particularly in the large U.S. market, BMW has had to continually retool, rethink, and reinvest in its manufacturing processes and leverage technology like advanced robotics, AI and machine learning, to build everything from internal combustion vehicles to hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and EV models on the same production line. The underlying philosophy of this approach, BMW says, is that it offers customers the choice of a wide variety of powertrains across the entire model lineup – from Rolls Royce to Mini – which will be key to the company’s success for the next 100 years.

BMW will build the new Gen6 battery pack, which will underpin the upcoming Neue Klasse platform, at its Battery Manufacturing Competence Center (BMCC) in Parsdorf, Germany. (Tom Kirkpatrick Photography/BMW)

BMW calls this their “technology open” approach, and it’s taken massive investment. The company has spent multiple billions of dollars upgrading its manufacturing plants around the world to integrate new manufacturing techniques. The company has leveraged everything from AI and machine learning and vision to clean-room techniques borrowed from the chip and tech manufacturing sector, and in-house tech development and innovation. The engineers faced a slew of challenges, from creating their own batteries to building the“ Energy Master” with its “Heart of Joy” computer systems that control everything from power management to ride and handling of future electric BMWs (and the company’s sub-brands).

In mid-February, BMW invited media to see some of the early production results of those investment billions. First, at its Battery Manufacturing Competence Center (BMCC) in Parsdorf, Germany, the company showed off its bespoke battery chemistry and manufacturing method for its Gen6 battery pack, which will underpin the upcoming Neue Klasse platform that all future BMW EVs will be built on.

The company says the new chemistry and cylindrical design will offer improved battery efficiency, more range, more energy density, and faster 800-volt architecture. BMW says that the new chemistry and cylindrical batteries provide 30% more range, 30% faster charging, and 20% more energy density. The company also says that the new chemistry can recoup up to 300

km (186 miles) of range in just 10 minutes on a DC fast charger. BMW also said its in-house-developed batteries are 50% cheaper to build. The design will be shared with BMW’s partners, EVE Energy and CATL in China, for manufacturing and will underpin the upcoming Neue Klasse vehicles that BMW plans to roll out globally starting late this year, beginning with the electric iX3. Neue Klasse is BMWs new electric platform that will underpin all future BMW EVs.

A display of BMW’s battery cells from the past dozen years, including three generations of the prismatic cells in the i3 to today’s cylindrical cells. (BMW)

To manage the new battery pack, BMW once again decided to rely on its in-house technological know-how to develop a brand new “Energy Master,” a penthouse that sits on top of the Gen6 battery and handles everything from the high-voltage vehicle and drivetrain systems (themselves controlled by BMW’s new “Heart of Joy” ECU, also developed completely in-house) to the low-voltage systems in the upcoming Neue Klasse vehicles.

Each Energy Master includes a control unit, a relay box with 800v/400v actuators, cooling and an on-board power supply. These are assembled and made at a plant in Landshut, Germany, about an hour from Munich, then shipped to plants around the world, including South Carolina, where most of the X3s are built. The manufacturing line in Landshut largely resembles something you’d see in Silicon Valley: a windowless warehouse populated by more robots than humans, working in wholly dust-free and clean environments.

In this space, BMW has leveraged everything from AI and high-tech robotics to machine vision and learning and flexible manufacturing lines to create these new battery controllers. The Energy Master parts are delivered and put into the line by a combination of human employees and robots, then assembled by 400 advanced Kuka robotic arms within the clean room. Cameras and AI track everything, down to the tiniest screws, to ensure there are no errors. All that digitized information is stored in a cloud-based manufacturing warehouse to detect anomalies before issues arise.

Updates to BMW’s sixth-generation eDrive technology (Gen6) include a 30% faster charging speed and 30% increase in range, with certain models achieving even higher figures. (Tom Kirkpatrick Photography/BMW)

Once the robots seal the Energy Master, it passes out of the clean room and into a location where humans plug in the remaining wiring harnesses to complete the build. Then, the Energy Master is transferred to the final quality control, where human technicians use a wide array of technology to check to make sure that all the components function properly.

While robots are great at simple assembly and can do everything from welding and fastening screws to precisely tracking and placing small components, the one thing that they fail at is grasping and plugging in fiddly wiring harnesses. It's one of the only two places where humans touch the Energy Master assembly, but it might not remain human-powered for long.

BMW is experimenting with smaller robotic arms, which are learning (very slowly) how to find and grasp the wires gently and plug them into the Energy Master in the correct orientation using AI, machine vision and learning. Currently, robots are remarkably slower at the process than human technicians, but as these technologies develop, it is likely that these tasks will be outsourced to robots.

BMW is also leveraging machine vision and learning at its Electric Engine Housing Production location next door to the Energy Master plant in Landshut. Here, melted vats of aluminum are poured by robots into freshly made (and reusable) quartz silica sand molds, then cooled, scanned for any faults, and handed off to human inspectors to be sure that they meet BMW’s high standards before being shipped to Steyr, for final assembly.

Comparison of BMW’s older Gen5 battery pack (right) next to the new Gen6 battery pack at a Tech Day Event in Germany. (Abigail Bassett)

Computer tomography is used to verify the internal quality, and the company uses a virtual twin of every part they produce so they can slice through the whole part to see the quality and look at spots that they can’t see with other technology. According to the company, AI and computer

vision are also being leveraged to look at each individual part and ensure that standards are met. The company uses vacuum injector casting to control the temperature of the cast as it goes into the mold, and once the motor, inverter, and stator castings are cool and complete, a human visually examines the parts for anomalies or burrs that need to be taken off in final assembly.

With the advancement of robotics and growing AI implementation, it's safe to expect that BMW’s Neue Klasse production will become more automated and rely more heavily on these kinds of advanced technologies. ICE vehicles and EVs are still rolling off the same line, one now largely now powered by robotics, even as the 100-year-old Munich Plant is undergoing renovation. It's clear that the penetration of these technologies into automotive manufacturing is only just beginning. It’s an approach that BMW hopes will keep it nimble in the face of growing trade wars, increased pressure to regionalize production, and to stay adaptive to global customers’ changing desires as the future of electrification continues to move forward.