BMW has ceased making combustion engines in Germany. Will that bother the brand faithful?

THE SOUL of BMW remains intrinsically German - but the ‘heart’ no longer beats there.

Having already shifted production of many of its Kiwi-favoured cars outside of Germany, BMW has now hit another landmark.

It has stopped combustion engine production in Germany. 

Don’t misread what that means. 

Munich will keep making fossil-fuelled engines. But, from now on they will come from countries beyond the borders of its birthplace.

Four cylinder engines will come from the United Kingdom; any of greater cylinder count will be from Austria.

New Zealand still takes some BMW vehicles from Germany; but the biggest volume X-badged sports utilities mainly come from the United States, save for the iX3, which is our first BMW out of China. Plants in South Africa and Mexico have also furnished cars to this country. 

So, does a ‘German’ car, require a German-made engine, any more than it might require to be a vehicle made in Germany?

It’s a question that BMW Group New Zealand managing director Adam Shaver’s sentiment is that the answer is probably a ‘no.’

“I don’t see it as a decisive factor.”

“I know that a lot of people are interested in ‘German-engineered’.” That’s why vehicles from South Africa and in the US have been extremely well received for years. They meet the standard expected to be found behind the badge.

Simply, BMW is no more or less an international company that many other big names of the car-making world.

The decision to close the engine line is at the automaker's main production site in Munich, Germany, is to make way for a new EV plant in Munich.

BMW is spending $NZ720 million on the new vehicle facility that expected to build some of the upcoming Neue Klasse EVs, from 2025. 

These are ultimately to come from two factories in Europe and another in China.

The changeover in Munich means the factory where the automaker built four, six, eight and 12-cylinder engines is now being removed.

That factory has been the sole location for BMW engine production in Germany for years and built its last engine, a V8, earlier this month.

It has been making engines for six decades the historic link goes back much further - BMW had been making engines in Germany since the brand began, in 1917. Initially, production was for aviation, starting with aircraft for World War One.

BMW has been relocating equipment and tooling for engine production out of Germany since 2020.

While the engines are kaput, the proposition of Bayerische Moteren Werke, which is German for Bavarian Motor Works, still holds truth, because it will make a lot of of the electric drivetrains for its battery-reliant cars in Germany, at the Dingolfing and Landshut facilities. It is also bringing battery manufacture in-house.

 It already builds electric powertrains and battery packs in Dingolfing, Germany, and is continuing to expand capacity at the site.

Plants in the German cities of Leipzig and Regensburg have also been upgraded to handle production of EV components in recent years, and the engine plant in Austria has also been prepared for production of EV components.