Electric motors from Steyr

Electric motors from Steyr

Due to the increasing global demand for electric drives, the BMW Group plant in Steyr is now consistently focusing on transformation. The future plan “Program 25” will take important measures by 2025 to secure the location and employment in the long term. What is important is that, in parallel to the consistently high utilization of classic combustion engines, new projects in the area of ​​electromobility are also being implemented at the site. This year, the content of the development center will be realigned and the production of electric drive housings will be expanded. At the same time, the core competencies in the area of ​​classic drives are also being further strengthened. “Despite the changed conditions, we have the clear goal of remaining the BMW Group’s leading drive location at the Steyr plant in the future,” says Alexander Susanek, Managing Director of BMW Motoren GmbH.

Additional orders

A main focus of “Program 25” is to bring additional orders from the BMW Group to Steyr. In the area of ​​diesel and gasoline engines, the relocation of production from Munich to Steyr, which was announced at the end of 2020, will ensure high utilization in the future. “In addition, we want to take on more production and development orders in the area of ​​electromobility in the future,” explains Susanek. To ensure an increased focus on electrification, the development center will be realigned and renamed from the “diesel engine development center” to the “Steyr development site”. At the end of last year, around 700 employees worked in the development center, around 15% of whom worked on electromobility. This proportion will increase significantly in the coming years. The BMW Group is researching various electric drive units for different vehicle series. The current focus is on electric drives for high-volume, smaller vehicle series. This means that development work from Steyr will flow into a particularly high number of vehicles. The activities in this area will be gradually expanded this year and include, among other things, electric motors, gearboxes and housings.

Charging and cooling

When it comes to cooling for fully electric vehicles, the Steyr development site has been active for some time: “All fully electric vehicles from the BMW Group that are now coming onto the market are equipped with overall vehicle cooling that was developed in Steyr,” says Fritz Steinparzer, head of the Steyr development site. In addition, the employees in Steyr have been developing the AC charging equipment for all fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the BMW Group since last summer. Since the middle of last year, the BMW factory in Steyr has also been producing housings for electric drives. The existing line currently produces 119,000 cases per year. This production line will now be further expanded to reach the planned capacity of 460,000 units per year by 2023. The investments planned for this year amount to 37 million euros.

Core competency: combustion engine

Combustion engines will continue to play an important role at the Steyr plant in the coming years. "Operation of the modernized crankshaft production started at the beginning of April. We invested a total of over 53 million euros in converting the line," explains Alexander Susanek. 77 systems – some new, some completely overhauled – were installed on around 6,000 m². An important step in this is changing the hardening process, which results in significant energy savings. “For the upcoming transformation, we at the BMW Group plant in Steyr are placing a strong focus on the training and further education of existing employees and apprentices, as well as on creating a modern working environment,” said the plant manager. That is why around 5 million euros were invested in a new training center as part of Program 25. Employees have recently been trained here on relevant future topics. Susanek: “The focus is on electromobility and digitalization.”