The chairman of the board of directors of the BMW automobile group, Oliver Zipse, announced on Wednesday an investment of 1.7 billion dollars in the production of electric vehicles in the US.
Just last weekend, Governor Ricardo Gallardo Cardona had announced that the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, could visit the state of Potosí to hold a meeting with directors of the BMW Group automotive assembler, in order to continue with the negotiations. for the attraction of an investment of one billion pesos, since the entity from Potosí was a candidate to become the headquarters of an assembly plant for electric vehicles of that brand, an investment that was being disputed with the United States.
Ebrard’s visit to San Luis Potosí, scheduled for yesterday, was cancelled.
On the part of BMW in San Luis Potosí, the official position was that the entity is not ruled out “for future investments” and later sent a statement detailing that the investment announced today “is independent of others that the BMW Group has in evaluation for the production of electric vehicles, and one of them is in which BMW Group San Luis Potosí participates and which is currently under analysis.
Besides, the Ministry of Economic Development affirmed that San Luis Potosí continues in the negotiation and denied that it is the same investment.
Through a press release, it was announced that the head of the unit, Juan Carlos Valladares Eichelmann, assured that: “In fact, I just had a phone call with the people from BMW, for the issue that we bring promptly with the negotiation, We were already aware of the announcement that they would make on October 19 regarding the US plant, times are moving, we are doing well, there was even talk that the announcement that we bring with this negotiation could be delayed for a couple of months. Calm down and when it is resolved, I will be the first to go out and say what will happen to that investment”.
This Wednesday BMW announced its decision and detailed that it will also choose the battery manufacturer Envision AESC to supply batteries to its factories in the US.
A new Envision AESC battery cell factory in South Carolina will supply lithium-ion battery cells for US electric production.
Of the investment of one thousand 700 million dollars, 1,000 million dollars are for the factory in Spartanburg (South Carolina) to prepare the production of electric vehicles.
The other $700 million is for the construction of a new high-voltage battery assembly center in Woodruff, South Carolina.
Until 2030 the BMW group wants to produce at least six electric models in Spartanburg. (With information from EFE and Pulse)