Overview
- BMW has launched a production pilot at its Leipzig plant using humanoid robots supplied by Swiss firm Hexagon to run under real assembly-line conditions.
- The robots are being trialed in battery assembly, component manufacturing and quality control to take on repetitive, ergonomically stressful or safety‑critical tasks.
- Workers train each robot on-site by teaching movement sequences that can then be copied to other units, a method BMW says will speed scaling if validated.
- Plant management says the machines are intended to assist employees rather than replace them and that staff will shift to other roles within the plant.
- BMW plans to complete the pilot by the end of the year and will consider industrializing and rolling the technology out to other sites if the trials prove successful, reflecting a wider move toward automation in EV supply chains.