'i' cars are becoming more and more important part of BMW's portfolio. After all, this will soon grow even more, since the existing pair of cars, i3 and i8 is going to be by a brand new model, the ix3 electric SUV. And even though this will arrive on the market in next few years, BMW is already preparing to expand their production facilities at Leipzig plant, where i3 and i8 are being made.

Over 300 million euros is the sum BMW is planning to invest in updating the Leipzig plant. With this money, they are going to expand production facilities and at the same time update existing body and paint shops. By doing so, they are expecting to expand the factory for 11.950 meters, increasing yearly production from around 250.000 cars to 350.000 by the end of the year 2020. Or to put this in another perspective, daily production should rise from 130 to around 200 cars.

"We have every faith in the skills and productivity of employees at our Leipzig plant. So it's only logical that, with the measures we are introducing now, we should make the plant even more flexible and, above all, more efficient to keep it competitive in the future," said Oliver Zipse, BMW AG Board Member for Production.

BMW's plans were also welcomed by the city of Leipzig and the state of Saxony, since expanding the factory also means additional jobs for people in the region. Consequently, Andreas Scheuer, German Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure did not hide his contentment: "Germany is the land of mobility. The automotive industry is our leading sector – and that's not about to change. It has created jobs for hundreds of thousands of people and will continue to do so in the future. We now have the chance to bring new German drive technologies onto the market, and must make electric mobility real for people and convince them with performance."