When it comes to Gäuboden in Lower Bavaria, Thomas Spötzl has a clear opinion. “The fields here are among the most fertile in the world,” says the spokesman for the citizens’ initiative (BI) “Lebenswerter Gäuboden”. disappear.” Almost 650 people see it like Spötzl. They have signed an online petition against the mega factory for high-voltage batteries that the car manufacturer BMW very likely wants to set up in the two Gäuboden villages of Straßkirchen and Irlbach as part of the conversion of its vehicle fleet to e-mobility.
BI’s demand: BMW should look for another location for the new plant, preferably an industrial wasteland where no valuable farmland has to be sacrificed for the project. BI spokesman Spötzl at least wants to ensure that the citizens of Straßkirchen can vote on the settlement. “We are preparing for a citizens’ initiative,” he says. In his estimation, Straßkirchen would be much worse affected by the settlement than Irlbach.
It is now almost exactly four weeks since BMW’s plans became known. The group itself is still very covered with details. Officially, BMW is looking for a 100-hectare site across Bavaria for the new plant. In Straßkirchen and Irlbach, but also among politicians right up to the state government, there is talk of a need for up to 160 hectares of land. Another important criterion is that the BMW plants in Munich, Dingolfing and Regensburg should be easily accessible from the new factory.
Therefore, only Lower Bavaria comes into question as a location for the mega factory. And Straßkirchen and Irlbach are the only communities that are known to not only have enough land available. But from which you can also quickly get to Munich, Dingolfing and Regensburg. The decision on the new battery plant is expected to be made in the first quarter of this year. Then BMW also wants to comment on the project.
The plans have met with mixed reactions in the region
The plans have met with mixed reactions in the region. Politicians and business people see the project as a commitment by the global BMW group to Lower Bavaria and as a great future opportunity far beyond the immediate region. In the nature conservation scene, the plans are met with rejection. The Bund Naturschutz, for example, has announced massive resistance to the new plant if farmland is sacrificed for it.
Likewise the ODP. Although the party is of little importance nationwide, it is comparatively strong in Lower Bavaria and is represented in numerous municipal councils. “Of course we support the mobility turnaround and the overdue farewell to combustion technology,” says Agnes Becker, head of the ÖDP. “But BMW wants to produce batteries for superfluous and overweight high-speed cars in the new factory.” Any area is too good for that, “but the valuable Gäuboden in particular,” says Becker, who is at home in Lower Bavaria.
In Straßkirchen and Irlbach, they fear not only for the farmland. But also that the new mega-factory is mixing up its localities, so to speak. “Our locations would possibly only be an appendage to the factory,” says BI spokesman Spötzl. To date, Straßkirchen and Irlbach have been very rural communities with a total of just 4,500 inhabitants. Around a thousand new jobs are to be created in the new plant in the first stage of expansion. That would further bleed the local labor market dry, says the BI. Local craftsmen and service providers are already finding it difficult to find workers.
Also, the two places would be choked with traffic and bursting at the seams. According to the initiative, truck traffic in the region has already doubled in recent years. The new plant would certainly mean more than a hundred truck trips to the region every day. In addition, the commuter traffic of BMW employees. The initiative paints a similarly gloomy picture of the consequences for municipal facilities such as kindergartens and schools. They are at their capacity limits and not designed for further influx.