BMW's Debrecen assembly plant will start in 2025
- The assembly plant built by BMW in Debrecen (Hungary), is scheduled to start the production of vehicles in 2025. The first vehicle to be produced at the new plant will be the replacement for the BMW i-X3 electric SUV, which is currently produced in China and launched in 2020. Its ICE version, the BMW X3, whose origins date back to 2017, is produced in the USA, in South Carolina, in the town of Spartanburg (where the X4, X5, X6, X7 and XM are also produced), but also in South Africa, in the town of Rosslyn, and in China, in the town of Shenyang. The Chinese site is the only one to produce the battery electric version of the X3.
- BMW chose to produce the battery electric version of the current i-X3 in China because this country is the leading BEV market, whereas the US market didn’t really starts to adopt them.
- The return of the electric i-X3 to Europe next year may raise questions. However, it can be interpreted as a logical follow-up of the location of the BMW i-X1 and i-X2 in Europe (at the Regensburg site in Germany). Given that BMW's German plants are close to saturation (especially after the end of the Nedcar site in Born), the Debrecen plant was the best opportunity.
- The future i-X3 should mark its era, as it will inaugurate the brand's new design, which returns to less aggressive, softer lines, inspired by the BMWs of the 1960s imagined at the time by Italian designer Michelotti, which remain known under the name “Neue Klasse”, as does the new design recently announced and named in the same way.
- The BMW Vision Neue Klasse X shown below anticipates the design of the future i-X3 launched next year.