BMW Group has started production of Neue Klasse electric motors at Plant Steyr in Austria, extending the Upper Austrian site's role beyond internal-combustion and hybrid engines into BMW's sixth-generation electric drive technology.

Plant Steyr is BMW's largest engine plant and has served for decades as the group's primary source of combustion engines and, more recently, hybrid drive units. The start of Neue Klasse motor output there marks a structural shift: an engine factory built around crankshafts and cylinder heads now builds electric traction motors for the platform underpinning BMW's next vehicle generation.

The Neue Klasse program, debuting with the iX3 built at Plant Debrecen in Hungary, introduces BMW's sixth-generation e-drive units. Gen-six motors pair with new round battery cells and promise meaningful gains in efficiency, range and charging speed over the fifth-generation drives used in current models such as the i4 and iX.

Adding motor production at Steyr gives BMW a European e-drive footprint alongside its established engine operations. The move matters for capacity planning: Neue Klasse volumes ramp across multiple plants from 2025 onward, and BMW needs motor supply scaled to match vehicle assembly at Debrecen, Munich and, later, Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina.

For Steyr's roughly 4,500-strong workforce, the assignment secures a role in BMW's electric transition at a site whose combustion business faces long-term decline under EU emissions rules. Austrian media have reported the plant invested heavily in new production lines for the e-motor program, including winding and assembly technology specific to the Gen-six design.

BMW has not yet published detailed Steyr motor capacity figures. What to watch: the Debrecen iX3 launch timing, BMW's next capacity disclosures for Gen-six motor output, and confirmation of when Neue Klasse vehicle assembly reaches Munich in 2026.