Assembly brings together hundreds of individual components to create the BMW and MINI engines our customers desire. Cutting-edge production technologies meet the expertise and skill of our highly qualified assembly team.

It all starts with the assembly of the basic engine. In the next step, the core components are combined with other parts to build up what’s known as the short engine – from which the final engine is gradually completed. The exciting thing here at Plant Steyr is that we produce hundreds of different engine variants on our production lines. But because our team are absolute masters of their trade, they can handle the complexity of the different variants. State-of-the-art production processes offer tailored support, along with a high degree of digitalisation, leading-edge logistics and an innovative modular system with engine sets for assembly. 

Once complete, every engine undergoes a final function check called a cold test. This computer-controlled process is particularly easy on the environment because the engine is powered not by fuel but by an electric motor. Once tested, the engines embark on their journey to the vehicle plant, where they are combined with the chassis and body in a production step known as the marriage.

In the future, a standardised engineering principle for inline engines will allow us to manufacture up to four different types of short engine on a single production line. These then form the basis for country- and performance-specific adaptations to be made. 

Height-adjustable, electric monorail hangers throughout assembly create optimum conditions for every worker, irrespective of build, and play an important part in helping the team remain healthy and productive.

Mechanical production of core engine components is one of Plant Steyr’s key areas of work. Some of the parts we make here are assembled in other BMW Group plants too.

Performance, dynamics, comfort and smoothness are subject to stringent standards. That’s why, at BMW Group Plant Steyr, we make core components such as crankcases, electric motor casings, crankshafts, cylinder heads and pistons ourselves. That’s because premium quality is a question of expertise. Constant quality controls and spot checks in our precision measurement lab further underscore our rigorous standards. These days, machining accuracy is measured to within thousandths of a millimetre (µ: 0.001 mm). To put that into perspective: a human hair is 0.05 mm in diameter!

Cutting-edge plant and equipment meets professional supervision and operation – to deliver sheer precision.

Development at Steyr is a co-inventor of future mobility and home to the BMW Group’s centre of excellence for efficient, dynamic diesel engines. We also develop electric drives for e-cars as well as engineering and testing components for electromobility, overall vehicle cooling and charging equipment. Many in our 700-strong team are already dedicated to electromobility.

The BMW Group is committed to achieving the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement, with low-carbon mobility as an important contributor. So, by 2030 the BMW Group aims for electrified vehicles to account for about half of all its sales.

BMW Group Plant Steyr plays an important part in e-drive production: in 2025, we will start producing next-generation e-drives, along with all their components. Plant Steyr will manufacture rotors, stators, inverters, transmissions and casings and assemble them into electric motors.

We already make the casings for the highly-integrated drive units today, in mechanical production.

Steyr is currently developing a new and powerful e-drive that will establish a new performance class. It will be found in BMW M GmbH cars, among others, where it will deliver peak electric performance.

Since 2020, development at Steyr has been enhancing e-drives for high-volume, smaller vehicle series. We also design and develop the heat management systems that regulate heating and cooling in all fully electric vehicles by the BMW Group.

From Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence (AI) to digitalisation – ideas for the future are tried and tested at our InnoLab.

Here at Plant Steyr, humans and robots share workspaces and tasks. Fitted with an integrated camera, the robots can recognise human body parts, such as the head, chest and arms, and thanks to their specially adapted sensor technologies, they slow down when they get close to them. If a person is about 2 metres away, the robot carries on working at speed because it knows there is plenty of space; but the closer the person gets, the slower it moves.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is about automating intelligent behaviour and machine learning. The AI we use in empties management is a neural network that was trained with images of packaging containers to identify whether they need lashing or not. Loose containers that could tip over during transport must be lashed. 

The containers of empty packaging are filmed and photographed by a camera. The AI then decides what is needed and routes the container through logistics accordingly. The AI learns the logic to make the decisions by itself and is constantly improving.

Workers in production and logistics use ProGlove data gloves for support. The gloves have integrated barcode scanners on the back and track the wearer’s natural hand movements. Pressing the button on the index finger with the thumb activates the scanner, allowing a barcode to be scanned and immediately giving feedback – which in turn improves efficiency and working conditions for the team.