The Bavarian automobile manufacturer is investing a total of 10 million euros in the new manufacturing center in order to promote the development of plastic and metal-based additive production processes. These are used both for the production of very small quantities for prototypes, customized individual components, as well as for volume manufacture of series produced vehicles. More than 30 production plants and 80 employees on an area of 6,000 m² are planned for this purpose. The new capacities will also be used to train in-house development engineers after the official opening in spring 2019.

BMW is already printing a metal component of the convertible top for the i8 Roadster series model and supplies customers of the MINI sub-brand with vehicle parts they have requested, such as customized trim strips. Bavaria is not alone on this path of modernization. While additive production processes at Volvo CE and Mercedes are already being used to manufacture spare parts for their own commercial vehicle division, Opel primarily prints tools for the automotive industry at the Engineering Center in Rüsselsheim .