Beijing. On May 15th 2018, the BMW China
RD Center officially opened in Beijing’s Shunyi District. As a
part of BMW Group Strategy NUMBER ONE NEXT, the
center is a significant step in expanding local innovation, and taking
the Group’s “In China, for China and the world” localization strategy
one step further.
“For us, China is a driving force of innovation, a place of
inspiration particularly in the field of electrification and
digitalization – we think China is the lead market in these fields
already today. This is why we began five years ago to set up a
comprehensive RD network in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang. And,
we expect that the increase of our Chinese RD activities and the
collaboration with more and more top class Chinese tech companies will
make a strong contribution to our global RD outcome, especially
in areas such as electro mobility and digitalization.” – stated Klaus
Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG, Development, at
the opening ceremony.
Located conveniently just outside Beijing’s fifth ring road and
covering an area of 17,000m2, this new facility has an open
office and innovative design, improving communication between RD
teams and providing inspiration for their creative work. Focussing
amongst other tasks on requirement management, testing and validation
as well as development of services and systems, the new space gives
home for more than 200 employees – adding up to a total of more than
1,100 staff in the Chinese RD network.
Covering a total area of 70,000 m2 across the three
locations, the centers cultivate local talent, with the result, that
more than two thirds of the RD professionals are Chinese. While
each RD center has different functions, they complement each
other and form a comprehensive innovation network.
In 2018, BMW’s new RD Center in Beijing will run more than 70
test vehicles across China, the testing mileage is planned for a
historical high of 5 million kilometres.
The BMW Group is enhancing its systematic RD capabilities on a
global level. It is developing a customer-centric RD system as
well as future-oriented RD concepts, that will provide the
Chinese and global market with enhanced, and more innovative products
and services . For the BMW Group, China is a driving force of
innovation, and plays an important role in its transformation into a
customer-centric technology company.
China has been in 2017 the largest market for the BMW Group globally.
With the establishment of RD centers in Beijing, Shanghai and
Shenyang, the Chinese RD network is unique and by far the biggest
presence of BMW RD outside Germany.