BMW to spend $866 million on Mexico plant expansion for EVs

SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico — German automaker BMW will invest 800 million euros ($866 million) in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi to produce high-voltage batteries and fully electric "Neue Klasse" models, the carmaker said Friday.

The expansion, set to add around 1,000 new jobs at its operations in the Mexican state, is BMW's latest push into electric vehicles (EVs) as it looks to convert more than half of its sales into all-electric cars by 2030, it said.

More than half of the funds to be invested in Mexico — 500 million euros — are earmarked for the battery assembly center on the carmaker's existing plant grounds, BMW said, and some 500 additional employees will work there.

Another 500 jobs will be created in other areas, it said.

The remaining 300 million euros will go to adapting and extending the body shop and building a new assembly line to install the battery packs, plant head Harald Gottsche told Reuters.