BMW to Dedicate Assembly Plants to Front- or Rear-Drive Platforms

BMW AG hopes to reduce manufacturing costs 5% by assigning each of its assembly plants either front- or rear-wheel-drive models, but not both.

Oliver Zipse, who heads the company’s manufacturing operations, tells Automotive News Europe that four plants will be assigned to build only front-drive vehicles and the others will produce only rear-drive models. He says the adjustments should streamline the flow of parts to each facility.

One plant—located in Tiexi, China—will continue to make vehicles with both powertrain configurations, according to ANE. All factories will be able to assemble all-wheel-drive variants of their standard vehicles.

The plan will allocate front-drive-only programs to BMW plants in Oxford, England; Born, the Netherlands; and Regensburg and Leipzig, Germany, according to ANE.

BMW’s rear-drive-only factories will be those in Dadong, China; Munich, Germany; Rosslyn, South Africa; and Spartanburg, S.C. Zipse tells ANE the assignment shifts will focus primarily on Regensburg, which will move exclusively to front-drive models in three years, and Leipzig, which will do the same in four years.

Most of the other facilities already specialize in only one of the two powertrain configurations, Zipse points out.