BMW Group introduced it’s investing round $106 million (100 million euros) between now and 2026 in a brand new electrical car battery testing heart in Germany as a part of its ongoing e-mobility ramp-up.

Positioned in Wackersdorf, 26 miles north of the town of Regensburg in japanese Bavaria, the middle might be built-in into the Wackersdorf Innovation Park web site’s current constructing buildings, that are at the moment used to fabricate cockpits for BMW automobiles and package deal car elements for delivery to the corporate’s abroad factories.

On the web site, BMW Group plans to check high-voltage batteries and different electrical powertrain elements for its future fashions very early in improvement, properly earlier than the beginning of manufacturing.

From mid-2024, when the primary deliverables for BMW Group improvement actions within the subject of high-voltage batteries are anticipated to enter common operation, the Wackersdorf web site will start placing batteries by their paces throughout a complete space spanning 90,869 sq. ft (8,442 sq. meters).

“The BMW Group’s Wackersdorf location is ready to develop into a serious facilitator for the transformation in direction of electromobility,” mentioned Website Supervisor Christoph Peters. “Along with supplying our abroad crops, cockpit manufacturing and, from 2024, door manufacturing for Rolls-Royce fashions, this can develop into Wackersdorf’s fourth predominant space of exercise. This, in flip, strengthens our location’s future viability.”

BMW Innovation Park in Wackersdorf

The funding will primarily give attention to advanced bench take a look at know-how and the upgrades to the constructing’s current infrastructure wanted for his or her operation. In mid-2024, the so-called “battery testers” might be put into service with the commissioning of the Corridor 80, which is at the moment being reworked for battery testing.

Wanting like massive fridges from the skin, the battery testers characteristic cutting-edge excessive tech inside that permits battery cells to be examined 24/7, early of their improvement.

The testers decide {the electrical} efficiency of particular person battery cells throughout charging and discharging underneath totally different situations, permitting the simulation of use circumstances that might be related for patrons later. Initially, parallel testing of a number of hundred battery cells might be potential, however as soon as the ramp-up is full, testing capability will attain a number of thousand.

From 2025 onwards, the testing heart will enter the ultimate part that can permit the validation of BMW Group’s battery-electric automobiles forward of the official launch of collection manufacturing so as to make sure the required premium high quality.

It will embrace subjecting the batteries to vibration and shock exams, for instance, utilizing so-called “shakers.” BMW says there are at the moment just a few of those advanced testing gadgets throughout Europe.

The ability may also allow the simulation of endurance exams consisting of advanced driving patterns, together with charging and discharging cycles. Apparently, BMW didn’t say whether or not the corporate’s present cells or the upcoming spherical cells for Neue Klasse EVs – or each – might be examined on the web site.