Car manufacturer BMW has announced plans to invest around €400m in electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing.
The company announced the investment in its Leipzig, Germany, factory that will handle the large-scale production of its range of EVs.
BMW believes that around 800 jobs will be created in the factory and should provide ample facilities for the roll out of the electric MegaCity Vehicle (MCV), which is scheduled for a 2013 release.
EV market
BMW is relatively slow to enter into the EV market – with the Nissan LEAF on release in 2011 – but Tobias Hahn, group spokesman for alternative drive trains and mobility recently said they believe electric vehicles must be purpose-built in order for them to be good propositions for customers, and that replacing a combustion engine with an electric power train simply cannot work.
He believes that in the MCV, BMW is creating a whole new range of vehicle.
“It’s a very exciting project. The MCV will be an entirely new sub brand of BMW. Mini is a brand of its own, Rolls Royce and BMW are also. It will be a sporty sub-brand,” he said.
