By Victoria Waldersee

BERLIN (Reuters) – BMW remains to be hammering out the right way to make good on a promise to construct the world’s first fossil-free plant in Hungary, from how a lot vitality may be generated on-site to how a lot storage will probably be wanted, the carmaker’s manufacturing chief mentioned.

The plant underneath building, which BMW has mentioned will open in 2025 and supply all its electrical energy from renewables, will nonetheless be related to Hungary’s grid, Milan Nedeljkovic mentioned at a media roundtable on Wednesday.

About half of Hungary’s electrical energy era comes from nuclear vitality, in response to information from the Worldwide Vitality Company, with round 1 / 4 from .

BMW will try and supply a “vital” proportion of the vitality required for the Hungary plant on-site, reminiscent of by way of photo voltaic panels, Nedeljkovic mentioned, declining to touch upon whether or not he anticipated the precise determine to be over 50%.

Like different carmakers, BMW has dedicated to buying 100% inexperienced vitality, however a lot of that is purchased within the type of so-called vitality certificates, which sign demand for renewables on the open market however don’t imply renewable vitality is flowing into its vegetation.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and spiking gasoline costs have pushed carmakers to look extra intently at direct renewable sources, in an try and decrease dependence on Russia and scale back publicity to a sudden halt in gasoline provides.

BMW was exploring varied concepts for on-site storage of renewable vitality, Nedeljkovic mentioned, with one possibility being high-voltage batteries recycled from BMW vehicles.

It was not but identified what capability the battery storage system within the Debrecen plant — the place the carmaker plans to supply round 150,000 models a yr, in comparison with the 350,000 it produces in Leipzig — would have.

“We’re establishing a plan to outline capability necessities,” Nedeljkovic mentioned.