BMW Group has announced it will transition to hydrogen-powered forklifts and tugger trains for all of its logistics and transport tasks at its Regensburg plant, with the phasing out of electric-fuelled vehicles starting from 2025.

The move to hydrogen-powered equipment, says BMW, includes all operations in the press shop and body shop and assembly. The transition is expected to be complete by 2030.

The Regensburg plant fleet is currently equipped with electric drive trains with BMW explaining the batteries used in the industrial trucks need to be changed twice per shift, taking about 15 minutes each time and is performed manually using a crane, also taking up significant space.

Head of BMW Group Plant Regensburg  Armin Ebner says of the change: “The gradual transition from electric to hydrogen propulsion brings us another step closer to the BMW iFACTORY, our digital and sustainable factory of the future.”

A two kilometre long pipeline with six decentralised filling stations will be built between now and 2026 to supply the factory with the required hydrogen.

Project manager Katharina Radtke explains: “Switching production logistics from electricity to hydrogen will diversify our plant’s energy mix – while optimising logistics processes and saving valuable space”.

“The advantage of hydrogen is that refuelling is very fast – just like with conventional fuels,” Radtke continues. “The filling stations required for this will be installed directly within the different production areas and do not take up much space.

“Once the conversion is completed, our annual hydrogen consumption will be around 150T.”

The BMW Group vehicle plant in Regensburg has been in operation since 1986 with up to 1,400 vehicles of the BMW X1 and BMW X2 models coming off the production line every weekday.