BMW has announced that the company aims to build five battery gigafactories worldwide with various partners over the next few years.
As per the announcement by Joachim Post, a member of the Board of Management, the strategically positioned factories will cut logistics costs for the company.
Although they did not detail where the new gigafactories would be located or what types of batteries would be built at the factories, he did confirm that BMW signed agreements with leading battery producers such as CATL, Northvolt and Samsung SDI, reports Manager-Magazin.
Interestingly, the Chief Technical Officer of BMW believes that solid-state batteries are the future of the EV world.
However, the technology is not ready for mass production yet.
BMW believes that the battery tech will be operational by 2025. This is an important milestone, as it is the same year the BMW Neue Klasse platform will debut.
The Neue Klasse platform includes support for solid-state batteries. However, BMW will not produce a production car with a solid-state battery until the end of the decade.
BMW is amid a push to electrify, and the company is aiming for EVs to account for at least half of its total sales by 2030.
Currently, BMW has 15 EVs in production if you include their pre-series EVs.
The company is also launching a trio of new EV sedans in 2022. The i3 will launch in China, the i5 is in pre-production, and the i7 will hit the streets.
