China is already home to BMW Group’s largest R&D system outside of Germany, with locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing.
Frank Weber, member of the board of management of BMW AG, development, said, “Our new R&D Centre and BMW China R&D upgrade will enable us to achieve a real competence push. Within the last three years, we have tripled our forces in China. Today, more than 3,200 designers and engineers, NEV and software specialists are creating leading-edge innovations in close collaboration with Chinese tech players, start-ups, local partners as well as academia. China is the place to be. Going forward, there will be a lot more China in our worldwide R&D organisation.”
BMW’s China R&D team has been deeply involved in the design, development, testing and validation of the locally-produced all-electric BMW i5.
In China, BA TechWorks in Nanjing will expand their software team to 500 associates by the end of 2023, with software development capabilities for full stack development of Intelligent Connected Vehicles.
BA TechWorks is a technology startup jointly invested by BMW China and ArcherMind.
BMW’s software development department was established in 2002 and now located in Mountain View (USA), Lisbon and Porto (Portugal), Munich and Ulm (Germany), Tokyo (Japan) and Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing (China), with over 8,000 software specialists worldwide.
The team develops an average of around 100,000 software builds per day and processes around 3,000 builds per hour in parallel.
In 2023, Designworks started its second decade in China and will further integrate with BMW’s world-leading digital development processes based on LED and VR technology, to empower future design through digitalization.
More than 25 years ago BMW AG acquired Designworks.
Designworks started its operation in Shanghai in 2012 and became a bridge between Western and Chinese aesthetics and a leading force in automotive design.
As well as cooperating with tech giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, China Unicom, Navinfo and Huawei, BMW also engages with China's future tech innovators and top universities such as Tongji University and Tsinghua University.
