BMW Has Constructed 18 Million 3 Collection Automobiles in 50 Years — Right here’s The place They Have been Made

BMW doesn’t discuss a lot about numbers except they matter. 18 million issues. Since manufacturing started in 1975, the BMW 3 Collection has been constructed greater than 18 million occasions. No different BMW mannequin comes shut. These vehicles didn’t come from one manufacturing unit and even one continent. They had been assembled at 18 crops in 13 international locations, unfold throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. For 5 a long time, the three Collection has been the fixed in BMW’s manufacturing system — the automotive that made growth potential and stored new factories working.

Munich Was the Anchor

Each era of the three Collection traces again to Munich. Manufacturing of the unique E21 began there in 1975, and the plant shortly grew to become BMW’s reference level for versatile manufacturing. Even early on, Munich wasn’t arrange for a single physique type or drivetrain. The manufacturing unit used overhead conveyor methods and programmable welding gear that allowed BMW to regulate output and specification with out stopping the road.

That mattered because the automotive advanced. By the early Nineteen Eighties, the second-generation 3 Collection pushed Munich additional. In 1982, BMW launched a totally automated physique store with industrial robots dealing with greater than 90 % of the welding work. On the time, that stage of automation was uncommon. It allowed BMW to lift output whereas conserving tolerances tight, which grew to become important as the three Collection grew into a number of physique kinds and trims.

Munich has been up to date always since then. Engine manufacturing, paint processes, high quality management, and logistics have all modified. The one fixed is that the three Collection stayed on the middle of it.

Growth Adopted Demand

By 1980, Munich alone wasn’t sufficient. BMW added 3 Collection manufacturing at Dingolfing, then Regensburg in 1986. These weren’t overflow crops — they had been full manufacturing websites able to constructing a number of variants. That laid the groundwork for one thing BMW would depend on later: producing the identical automotive, to the identical commonplace, in multiple place on the identical time.

Worldwide manufacturing got here subsequent. Rosslyn, South Africa started constructing the three Collection in 1984, adopted by Spartanburg within the U.S. in 1994. These strikes weren’t symbolic. They allowed BMW to provide native markets instantly and diminished reliance on exports from Europe. Extra importantly, they compelled BMW to standardize processes globally. The identical automotive needed to come off the road the identical means, whether or not it was in-built Germany or South Africa.

That method grew to become the template for all the pieces that adopted. With one exception, each new BMW plant over the previous a number of a long time began with the three Collection. Spartanburg, Leipzig, San Luis Potosí, and BMW’s joint-venture crops in China all ramped up manufacturing with some model of the three Collection.

The place the three Collection Was Constructed, Era-by-Era

1st Era BMW 3 Collection (E21)

• Sedan – Crops Munich, Dingolfing – 1975–1983

2nd Era BMW 3 Collection (E30)

• Sedan, Convertible, Touring, M3 (Coupé and Convertible) – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg – 1982–1994

third Era BMW 3 Collection (E36)

• Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, Compact, M3 (Sedan, Coupé, Convertible) – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Spartanburg (USA), Rosslyn (South Africa) – 1990–2000

4th Era BMW 3 Collection (E46)

• Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, Compact, M3 (Coupé and Convertible) – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa) – 1997–2006

fifth Era BMW 3 Collection (E90/E91/E92/E93)

• Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, M3 (Sedan, Coupé, Convertible) – Crops Munich, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Dadong (China), Leipzig – 2004–2013

sixth Era BMW 3 Collection (F30/F31/F34)

• Sedan, Touring, Gran Turismo, M3 (Sedan)
• The Coupé, Convertible, and Gran Coupé cut up into the brand new BMW 4 Collection vary – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China) – 2011–2021

seventh Era BMW 3 Collection (G20/G21)

• Sedan, Touring, M3 (Sedan and Touring), i3 (totally electrical, China solely) – Crops Munich, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China), San Luis Potosí (Mexico) – Since 2018

Issues Are As soon as Once more Altering

BMW is already making ready the eighth era. A totally electrical 3 Collection will enter manufacturing in Munich within the second half of 2026 as a part of the Neue Klasse rollout, with China and Mexico to observe. BMW has additionally confirmed that 3 Collection manufacturing will return to Dingolfingbringing the mannequin again to one in all its earliest growth websites.