The inhabitants of a village in Lower Bavaria have it in their hands how the construction of electric cars at BMW will continue. It’s about farmland and truck traffic, about jobs and prosperity.
Actually, BMW now wants to quickly ramp up the production of electric cars in its Bavarian plants. The batteries for this are to be manufactured in a new, central assembly plant, 40 kilometers north of the largest European BMW plant in Dingolfing.
But the referendum that is now beginning in the 3,300-inhabitant community of Straßkirchen could destroy the plans. “For BMW in Bavaria, this is about the future of electrification,” says board member Ilka Horstmeier.
The “citizens’ initiative Livable Gäuboden” wants to prevent the battery factory and has enforced the vote. However, the municipal councils of Straßkirchen and Irlbach, on whose district the plant is to be built, unanimously approved the planned settlement – now they fear for 3200 new jobs and training places and high tax revenues.
Additional warehouses would be superfluous
BMW wants to assemble around 600,000 high-voltage batteries there every year, which will then be installed in the electric cars in Dingolfing, Regensburg and Munich. The location is close to the A3 and A92 motorways. The large, heavy batteries could also be transported directly to the car plants with electric trucks, additional storage would be superfluous. BMW also builds battery factories at its car plants in Hungary, the USA, Mexico and China.
BMW currently employs around 40,000 people in Bavaria. “Many companies will take a close look to see whether people still want to invest in sustainable technologies and in future-oriented jobs in Bavaria. This means that the citizens of Straßkirchen also decide on the attractiveness of Bavaria as a business location,” says Horstmeier and warned: ” Once future technologies and jobs migrate, they don’t come back anytime soon, and a downward spiral begins.”
The “citizens’ initiative worth living in Gäuboden”, on the other hand, fears that the rural home will become an industrial zone and a traffic junction. According to the planning documents submitted, 650 trucks could soon drive to and from the BMW assembly plant every day, as well as around 3,000 cars and a few dozen works buses. Although BMW offers secure, well-paid jobs with good working conditions, this is exactly what threatens the existence of many other companies in the region in times of a shortage of skilled workers. And on top of that, more than 100 hectares of the best arable land would be destroyed forever.
Worry about emigration
A second citizens’ initiative fights “For a modern homeland with a future” for the settlement and warns against the emigration of young people. “Yes to BMW” posters can be seen in front gardens and on balconies.
Straßkirchen’s first mayor Christian Hirtreiter says: “Every euro is really needed here!” A company in neighboring Deggendorf has just laid off 400 employees, another company with 170 jobs is going to Poland, and the paper factory in Plattling with 400 employees is closing. BMW means work and prosperity not only for the communities, but for the entire region. “The local companies also benefit from this.”
Construction companies, bakers, suppliers – around 1,200 companies in Lower Bavaria work partly or entirely for BMW. Around 7,500 BMW employees who commute to Dingolfing or further live in the region around Straßkirchen and Irlbach. The company promises that more than 1,500 of them could work in the new assembly plant in the future. Jobs and training places nearby would be good for the families, for the grandparents, for the village, says Irlbach’s second mayor, Hermann Radlbeck. The municipality also lacks the money for daycare, broadband expansion, road rehabilitation and other tasks. “That’s why we need this trade tax revenue,” meaning BMW.
In the meantime, all arguments have been exchanged, says Hirtreiter. In the coming days, all around 2,700 voters will receive the postal voting documents. “We expect a high turnout because the issue really affects everyone.” The count will be held on the evening of September 24th.
Source: Stern
