PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Earlier than BMW can start cranking out electrical autos at its sprawling U.S. manufacturing unit close to Spartanburg, S.C., the German luxurious marque should develop a posh EV provider community within the area.

Overseeing that essential improvement is the job of Joachim Put up, a 20-year firm veteran and BMW Group’s head of procurement and provide chain.

Put up helps be sure that 30 million elements attain the corporate’s worldwide manufacturing hubs each day. As BMW switches factories to constructing EVs, Put up is rethinking how new applied sciences and uncooked supplies are sourced. The underside line: Constructing EVs means suppliers should step up and manufacture the brand new elements for them.

“The industrialization of all of the meeting, of all of the elements, is subtle and excessive tech and desires time,” Put up instructed Automotive Information at a media occasion in Palm Springs, Calif., this week. “We’re targeted on that, however it will likely be robust.”

Final month BMW introduced a $1.7 billion funding to construct at the very least six battery-powered fashions at its plant in Greer, S.C., by 2030. The venture contains home sourcing of next-generation batteries and development of a $700 million battery-pack meeting plant in close by Woodruff, S.C.

Put up and his workforce should assist the suppliers for BMW’s combustion engine autos adapt their companies to supply as many EV elements as potential. Utilizing the present provider base is important as a result of these corporations have the know-how, stated Put up, who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering.

“It isn’t a giant subject to deliver them to transformation,” he stated. Combustion engine elements suppliers can repurpose a manufacturing unit to supply housings and bearings for electrical motors, whereas suppliers engaged on engine cooling can adapt their know-how to cooling batteries.

However within the case of EV powertrain elements reminiscent of battery cells and electrical motors, BMW desires to develop these applied sciences in-house or faucet into a brand new ecosystem of suppliers.

“Lots of new applied sciences you can’t simply purchase in the marketplace,” Put up stated, noting the automaker is creating electrical motors and battery-pack meeting in-house.

“It is a key expertise for us,” he added. “It is essential for us to have the know-how within the firm for that.”

EVs will stress current stress factors on an already strained provide chain.

For instance, the brand new era of high-tech autos is driving further demand for scarce semiconductor chips. EVs require as much as 30 % extra chips than combustion engine autos to energy battery administration methods and electrical motor controls, Put up famous.

One other provide chain problem includes sourcing scarce uncooked supplies reminiscent of lithium and cobalt for EV batteries. Put up stated he expects this uncooked materials state of affairs to be “robust till 2030 at the very least.”

With mining operations requiring lengthy lead instances as a result of environmental and governmental laws, automakers reminiscent of BMW and Mercedes are straight signing long-term contracts with mining corporations to supply uncooked supplies on behalf of their battery cell suppliers. However recycling these uncooked supplies might be very important in serving to provide meet the brand new EV-fueled demand.

“We’re in contracts with cell suppliers to make use of recycled materials,” Put up stated. “Our goal is to reuse 90 % of the uncooked supplies within the battery.”

Regionalization of essential elements and uncooked supplies “helps us to be extra resilient to world impacts,” Put up stated. Nevertheless it’s not possible but to supply 100% native content material. The Spartanburg plant’s EV provide chain will prolong effectively past South Carolina, with some elements coming from Europe and Asia.

The emphasis on regionalization was underscored when COVID-19 and a cascade of elements shortages modified how and the place automakers supply car elements.

“Provide chain administration won’t ever be prefer it has been up to now,” Put up stated.

To make sure better provide chain visibility, BMW is investing in additional strong knowledge administration methods.

“You have to know in each management unit in our automobiles which type of semiconductor is there, and from which location does it come,” Put up stated. If there’s a disruption in a specific area, his workforce can rapidly determine which suppliers and automobiles are affected, he added.

“Information is the premise for controlling and managing the provision chain,” Put up stated.