Construction of BMW's high-voltage battery plant in Thailand commences
The BMW Group has inaugurated the construction of a new 4,000 square meter high-voltage battery assembly plant in Rayong, Thailand. BMW has invested more than THB 1.6 billion or about EUR 42 million in the project (approx. PHP 2.55 billion).
Present in the joint ground-breaking ceremony with Milan Nedeljković, Board Member for Production, are representatives of the Thai government and the German ambassador to Thailand Ernst Reichel. Construction work is underway for the BMW Group’s own local manufacturing facility for Gen-5 high-voltage batteries.
“Local production of high-voltage batteries in Rayong is the next logical step in the continued electrification of our production network. Once again, the principle of ‘local for local’ applies, supporting economic development, employment opportunities and knowledge transfer in Thailand and the ASEAN region,” said Milan Nedeljković at the ground-breaking ceremony.
Once completed, the new assembly line will convert imported battery cells into modules that will then be integrated into high-voltage batteries.
Cutaway of BMW CE 04 electric scooter
While BMW did not mention if the facility would also produce batteries for their electric motorcycle lineup, there is a big possibility that some of the high-voltage batteries from the new Rayong plant will end up in some of the CE 04, models, especially those that are destined for the Asian market. The battery pack of the CE 04 is 1/4 of the battery pack of one of BMW’s battery-operated vehicle models, while the motor was also taken from the same electric vehicle model.
BMW’s Rayong plant manufactures around two dozen BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad models for the Thai as well as various ASEAN markets. In 2023, the output was more than 12,000 cars and almost 11,000 motorcycles.
