- BMW wants its EV owners to forget about battery issues.
- For the high-voltage batteries in the upcoming Neue Klasse EVs, BMW is sticking to a zero-defect approach.
- Every cell that comes into the factory is checked to make sure it’s up to spec.
Electric vehicle batteries rarely fail, but when they do, they’re extremely costly to replace. It’s one of the reasons why some people steer clear of EVs, but BMW wants to bring some peace of mind to those who are considering the automaker’s soon-to-be-launched Neue Klasse EVs.
That’s the German marque’s latest generation of battery-powered cars, which will kick off later this year with the iX3 crossover, followed by the larger iX5 and iX7, as well as an all-electric equivalent to the 3 Series sedan.
BMW Neue Klasse Gen6 High-Voltage Battery Pack Assembly
Photo by: BMW
In short, BMW is aiming for zero defects in its high-voltage batteries. To make that happen, the Bavarian manufacturer is using AI-supported quality checks during the production process. Furthermore, every cylindrical cell that’s shipped by suppliers is checked before going into what BMW calls a cell cluster. During the cell clustering process, the cells are connected to coolants, followed by laser-cleaning and welding the contacts. During this time, a monitoring system constantly keeps things in check.
A foaming process follows, which ensures that all elements are protected as a mechanical unit. The Neue Klasse’s high-voltage battery cells are integrated directly into the pack, meaning there are no individual modules, while the pack itself becomes a structural component of the body.
At the end of the assembly process, each battery pack, complete with the central control unit, undergoes a complete end-of-line inspection to make sure that everything is up to spec.
“For production of our high-voltage batteries, we are pursuing a consistent zero-defect approach,” said Markus Fallböhmer, head of Battery Production at BMW AG. “Highly intelligent, AI-supported quality checks are integrated into the production process to help us achieve this.”
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Source: BMW
For its upcoming Neue Klasse EVs, BMW has partnered with several battery suppliers that ship cylindrical cells to the automaker’s own battery assembly plants. When everything is up and running, BMW will have no fewer than five battery factories on three continents, including one in the United States and another one in Mexico.
Until that happens, though, the company has been running pilot factories since 2023 to perfect all the processes that will be implemented at the big plants. To make things simpler, cheaper and more immune to the political shifts, BMW is building its battery factories as close as possible to its vehicle factories. This way, the cells get in, they get assembled into complete packs, and then they cross the road into another factory to get installed into a finished EV.
With an 800-volt architecture and the latest and greatest in inverter tech, BMW’s new EVs promise more range, more power and higher charging speeds than ever before.