Lower Bavaria: BMW buys land to build a battery factory – Bavaria

BMW wants to build a battery factory 40 kilometers north of its largest European car factory, Dingolfing. The purchase agreement for a 105-hectare property in the Lower Bavarian communities of Irlbach and Straßkirchen has been signed, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. This is an important step, but the approval process is only just beginning Passau New Press reported about it.

In the new factory, BMW wants to assemble the high-voltage batteries for the electric cars using supplied battery cells, which will then be installed in the vehicles in the Dingolfing, Munich and Regensburg car plants. Construction of the battery factory is scheduled to begin in 2024. A good 1,000 jobs are to be created in the plant alone. BMW is also building similar battery factories for electric cars in Debrecen, Hungary, near the US plant in Spartanburg, in Mexico and in China.

Because the batteries are large and heavy, car manufacturers try to locate them as close as possible to the car plants. Irlbach and Straßkirchen are on the A3 and A92 motorways. After the purchase of the property, the construction management process begins. The two municipalities and the district office of Straubing-Bogen are responsible for the approval. BMW invited the approximately 4,000 residents of the two communities to an on-site information event on March 3rd.

A citizens’ initiative “Liveable Gäuboden” is committed to preserving the arable land in front of Straßkirchen and is collecting signatures against the work. It would “force a massive structural change on our village and the entire region,” complain the initiators.

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