Videos from inside production plants of various car makers are nothing new. We’ve seen them in spades over the years. However, when it comes to electric vehicles, it’s a bit of a different story. That’s because they go through a different process. When it comes to the BMW i3, that’s even more interesting because of the way the Leipzig plant works.
That said, the video below is absolutely mesmerizing, showing the intricate process behind not just assembling the car, but actually making the electric motor.
Everything is done on site, in Leipzig. The BMW plant is the one responsible for putting together the i3 and the i8 models. After getting the carbon fiber bits imported from the U.S., the German facility puts everything together. But before assembly can start, the electric components need to be made in the first place.
In the video below we get to see exactly how the electric motor is made and it’s quite an interesting trip.
Next, we can see the the massive battery pack which makes up the entire floor of the i3. Using a large bed, robots are once again the main artisans behind the production of the batteries.
Putting all these pieces together to make a car is also quite fascinating. We get to see how the CFRP body looks like and how everything is installed. This time round there’s a bit more human labor involved, with a lot of bits requiring manual installation.
That includes even the roof, which is basically glued to the car. As a matter of fact, since a lot of the parts have to be glued on, there’s quite a lot of manual labor involved, making the i3 as close to ‘hand-built’ as it gets at BMW these days.
https://youtu.be/6uwrpDhs2gI
