BMW is going to build a new European factory in Debrecen, Hungary. Called the "iFactory", it indicates that this will be the first car plant in the world to completely eliminate the use of fossil-fuels.

According to Electrive, this plant will be the one where the "New Class" of EVs from BMW will be produced, starting 2025.

BMW says that the iFactory strategy will be applied to all of the other plants belonging to the German carmaker.

Milan Nedeljković, BMW AG Board Member for Production, says that "the BMW iFACTORY is not a one-off showpiece but an approach we will implement at all our plants in the future – from our 100-year-old home plant in Munich to our forthcoming plant in Debrecen, Hungary."

BMW representatives emphasized flexibility, since not all of the factories will be exclusively produce EVs, as the Munich-based company has not yet given an end date for fossil-fuel-powered cars.

"Flexibility remains the key competitive advantage of BMW Group production, now and in the future. The company’s production structures are so flexible that a single production line can produce different drive types and vehicle models. They also set the standard in terms of rapid responsiveness and adaptability, absorbing supply bottlenecks and shortages comparatively spontaneously and reacting quickly to fluctuations in demand", he added.

In order to support the new strategy, BMW has adopted the slogan "Lean. Green. Digital", and apparently, "Lean" stands for efficiency, precision and high flexibility regarding the production.

For BMW, "Green" means avoiding consumption, conserving resources and using the latest technologies in order to make the production greener and more sustainable.

"By 2030 we aim to reduce CO2 emissions from production by 80 per cent compared to 2019", says Milan Nedeljković.

Because the Debrecen iFactory would require important amounts of electric energy, a "significant proportion" of it will be produced directly on the factory, while the rest should come from renewables - most of these sources being regional.

"Our contribution to the energy transition makes not only environmental but also business sense because our approach ensures stable prices and secure supplies," Nedeljković explains.

The final element of the strategy, "digital" refers to the fact that the entire process in the development of vehicles, from designing, to planning and manufacturing, will be networked. In addition, all BMW plants will be digitally scanned so they will have a 3D twin, which should ultimately improve the collaboration between different plants located around the globe.

This also means that employees will have to be up-skilled for use in electromobility, and BMW already requalified more than 50.000 employees in the areas such as quality, logistics and maintenance.