The construction of BMW's first vehicle testing project in
eastern Europe will create several hundred jobs in the Czech
Republic, where costs are lower than in neighboring Germany.
The project is due to go on stream at the start of the next
decade, the carmaker said, confirming a Czech media report.
BMW-owned properties near its Munich headquarters, in France and
in Sweden are no longer sufficient to accommodate the carmaker's
expanding tests of self-driving vehicles, it said.
The group, which also includes the Rolls-Royce and MINI brands,
plans to introduce its first highly automated iNEXT model in
2021 and has teamed up with Intel, Mobileye, Delphi [DCLC.UL],
Continental and Fiat Chrysler to develop a market for driverless
vehicles.
It also plans to increase battery-powered offerings to 25 models
by 2025, about half of which will be fully electric.
"Today, we are on the threshold of automated driving," Herbert
Grebenc, BMW’s head of real estate management said in written
remarks prepared for delivery at a news conference in Prague.
"This means making massive investments in our future."
Projects at the 500-hectare (1,200-acre) Sokolov site near the
German border, picked out of 82 potential locations, will
include the testing of driver-assistance and braking systems,
Grebenc said.
($1 = 0.8487 euros)
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Adrian Croft)
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