It’s going to be a massive change. For decades, the Steyr site stood for diesel engine expertise within the BMW Group. But from now on everything will be different. The specialists for the internal combustion engine, who equip about every second BMW or Mini worldwide with a motor, have dedicated themselves to electromobility. Alexander Susanek is one of those who fought for it and prevailed with his team. It is quite likely that he saved the Steyr site with this.
By 2035, cars with internal combustion engines will no longer be allowed. That’s what the EU provides, so it doesn’t help that the specialists in Steyr develop and manufacture the cleanest and most efficient combustion engines. A phasing out of production would therefore have been fatal for Steyr.
Within the group, Steyr faced the competition for the contract for the production of electric motors and won. This week saw the start of the renovation. One billion euros will be invested by 2030 to enable the development and production of BMW e-drives in Steyr. Series production will begin in 2025, and ultimately 620,000 electric motors will roll off the assembly line every year. “The whole team did an excellent job,” says Susanek, whose debut in Steyr two years ago – at the beginning of the pandemic – was anything but easy. He was also asked about MAN, which was in the middle of a crisis. After all, the 46-year-old from Munich spent nine years of his working life with the German truck manufacturer before moving to BMW in 2014.
The graduate mechanical engineer and industrial engineer was initially the head of the department for prototype construction and then the assembly manager in Regensburg. In 2019 he was appointed to succeed Christoph Schröder in Steyr. His wife and three children still live in Munich. Therefore, the enthusiastic sportsman also describes his family as the most important leisure activity.
Read more about the topic here:
Source: Nachrichten
