How big of a company is the BMW Group anyway? At the end of last year, it employed just under 160,000 people across more than 30 production and assembly plants worldwide. As of this week, another factory joins the network. CEO Oliver Zipse and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attended the opening ceremony of the Debrecen plant, where the new iX3 will be built.
Pre-production began nearly a year ago, but customer vehicles won’t start rolling off the assembly line until late October. The Hungarian site marks several firsts for the BMW Group. Never before has the company operated a facility dedicated solely to electric vehicles or one that runs entirely without fossil fuels. Instead, it draws all its power from renewable energy. Debrecen is also the Group’s first factory in Central Europe.
The plant, built on more than 400 hectares, has created over 2,000 direct jobs. Construction took just over three years, with the foundation stone laid in June 2022. Once at full capacity, the site will produce up to 150,000 vehicles annually, with a maximum output of 30 units per hour. For now, only the iX3 has been confirmed, but additional models are likely. An iX4, still unannounced, would be a logical addition.
The northeastern Hungary factory also houses a battery production facility to support the first Neue Klasse model. Debrecen is the first of five sites where BMW will build sixth-generation batteries with round cells, which deliver 20% higher energy density and a 30% faster charging rate than the prismatic cells used in current EVs.
Initially, the plant will build only the iX3 50 xDrive. However, a more affordable 40 xDrive and a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive 40 sDrive are already in the pipeline. Higher-performance M Performance and full M versions are expected later in the model’s life cycle. Meanwhile, a long-wheelbase iX3 is set to enter production in China next year for the local market.
Debrecen won’t be the only site building the standard-wheelbase iX3. Starting in 2027, BMW’s San Luis PotosĂ plant in Mexico will also produce the “NA5.” Even so, iX3 models bound for the U.S. will continue to come exclusively from Hungary.
