BMW Group's UK engine production facility located in north Warwickshire is marking a major milestone with 25 years since the plant first opened and production began.

Since 2001, BMW Group Plant Hams Hall has manufactured more than 7.6 million engines, alongside high-precision machining of key engine components.

The plant is a key part of BMW Group's technology-open approach, supplying a number of the company's production sites around the world with the latest generation of highly efficient petrol engines, including power units for plug-in hybrid models.

Today, engine production ranges from three and four-cylinder petrol engines to high performance V8 engines, powering vehicles across both BMW and MINI.

Separately, the V12 engine is produced exclusively for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Its assembly follows a distinct production process, carried out by specially trained production colleagues, before final delivery to the Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood.

"This anniversary is a special milestone for our site," says Dirk Dreher, head of the BMW Group's Hams Hall plant. "We are a competitive plant and there's always been a real passion among our workforce to continually improve our manufacturing processes and site. Building on our strong foundation, we are looking forward to remaining a successful plant in the future."

From producing just one engine family in 2001, the plant now manufactures two different engine families, with the recent integration of V8 and V12 engines bringing a higher business value to the plant.

Originally only producing for the plant's own engine production, the machining facility expanded over the last decade, trebling its capacity, increasing annual production to more than a million components, and extending supply to BMW Group's engine manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria.

"The Hams Hall plant is an integral part of our global production network," explains Harald Gottsche, Head of Engine Production at BMW AG. "The site combines technological expertise with high flexibility. It reliably supplies our vehicle plants with efficient, powerful engines of premium quality. This includes the V12 engine - a masterpiece from Hams Hall!"

Within the V engine production system, autonomous robots have been integrated to assist in the movement of engines and worker guidance is digitised at every workstation.

Other advancements such as the implementation of AI camera technology are proving critical in the pursuit of absolute quality and increasing the speed in which potential quality topics can be detected.

Selected historic milestones: 2001.The first brand-new four-cylinder BMW engines were built at the plant in 2001, marking the start of series production at Plant Hams Hall. VALVETRONIC technology was integrated into volume production for the first time to deliver significant decreases in fuel consumption and lower engine emissions.

2006.Further growth came in 2006 with an additional new engine family which expanded the plant's customer base to MINI, supporting a raft of updates to the brand that improved the fuel consumption and emissions of the iconic car.

2013 - 2015. The plant saw further investment across the site and began integrating another new generation of engines. The Hams Hall plant became the sole supplier of the award-winning, three-cylinder engine for the trailblazing BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. Production of this engine family continued to expand in 2015, with additional three and four-cylinder petrol engines integrated for MINI and BMW.

Alongside engine assembly, a high-tech machining hall producing key engine components; crankshafts, cylinder blocks and cylinder heads, is a core part of the Hams Hall site. Around the same time, investment also extended to a complete overhaul of this facility, trebling its capacity and increasing annual production to more than a million components for engines built at both Hams Hall and supplied to the BMW Group engine manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria.

2022- 2023.A new production facility was integrated into the assembly hall, increasing the plant's business value when production of the company's prestigious V engines (V8 and V12) was entrusted to the plant. V12 engines from Plant Hams Hall are supplied for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, with V8 engines built for various models, including a plug-in hybrid variant for the BMW M5 Saloon and Touring.

2026. The Hams Hall plant reaches its quarter-of-a-century, 25-year milestone.