BMW Group: Additive manufacturing moves ever closer to series production
BMW Group: Additive manufacturing moves ever closer to series production
https://www.bmwgroup.com/en/news/general/2026/additive-manufacturing.html
Publish Date: 2026-07-15 04:30:00
Source Domain: www.bmwgroup.com
For the BMW Group, additive manufacturing is nothing new. It commissioned the development of its first systems as early as 1990 and 1991, which it then used to produce prototype components. Later, the technology was used in series applications with Rolls-Royce, to manufacture the first series metal components for series production of the BMW i8 Roadster, and to customise components for aftersales.
The difference to today, however, lies not so much in the fact that the technology is being used as in its evolution to industrial maturity. Rather than comprising individual applications, it now forms resilient systems, having developed from a technology with potential to a scalable reality in production. Once a special production solution, 3D printing is gradually evolving to an established production technology.
Or, in the words of Timo Göbel: “We are seeing strong growth in this technology across a wide range of applications at every stage of the product lifecycle, so we will continue to invest.”
