- The new BMW iX3 was previewed by the Vision Neue Klasse X concept earlier this year.
- More than €800 million is being invested into expanding the production facility.
- BMW’s massive plant in South Carolina will also build several EVs this decade.
BMW’s huge factory complex in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, will start to build the brand’s next-generation Neue Klasse vehicles in 2027, and the first model that’ll roll off the production line will be the second-generation iX3.
The world was provided a glimpse of the new-age iX3 earlier this year with the launch of the Vision Neue Klasse X. While the name of the new road-going variant is yet to be confirmed, we do expect it to look very similar to the concept, and as such, radically different than the current iX3. Whether or not that’s a good thing will be up to the market to decide, but there’s no denying BMW is adopting a brave new design language in the Neue Klasse era.
Read: 2026 BMW iX3 Electric SUV Promises 500 Mile-Range With New Battery Tech
This new model isn’t far off. BMW has already confirmed it will be built at the i Factory in Debrecen, Hungary, starting next year, before sales and deliveries of the new all-electric SUV begin. It will be a true global model and BMW likely expects it to sell well, hence why it’ll also be built in Mexico. During a recent press event attended by BMW Blog, the president and chief executive of the brand’s San Luis Potosí facility confirmed the site would start assembly of the iX3 two years after the Hungary site, meaning sometime in 2027.
BMW confirmed in early 2023 that it was investing €800 million ($870 million) into Mexico its Neue Klasse EVs. Some €500 million ($543 million) of this investment is being directed to the construction of a new assembly center for high-voltage batteries, while the existing assembly site and body shop will be expanded. These investments will create 1,000 new jobs.
The new iX3 will be sold in the United States, and logic dictates that it will be the Mexican-made vehicle that’s sold locally, as opposed to the one manufactured in Hungary. However, if Donald Trump wins the upcoming federal election, BMW may have to change its plans. The Republican presidential candidate has threatened to hit vehicles imported from Mexico with 200% or even 500% tariffs, aiming to prevent a single Mexican-built car from being sold in the US.
“I don’t want their cars,” Trump told Fox News in an interview. “They will not be able to sell cars. I’m not going to let them build a factory right across the border and sell millions of cars into the United States and destroy Detroit further.”
Fortunately, BMW could make things work. It currently has a huge production facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and has confirmed that it will produce six EVs models by the end of the decade at this site. There’s no word on which models these will be and if they will be Neue Klasse-based models or instead built around the existing CLAR architecture.
