BMW doesn’t speak a lot about numbers until they matter. 18 million issues. Since manufacturing started in 1975, the BMW 3 Collection has been constructed greater than 18 million instances. No different BMW mannequin comes shut. These vehicles didn’t come from one manufacturing unit and even one continent. They have 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 doable and stored new factories operating.
Munich Was the Anchor
Each technology of the three Collection traces again to Munich. Manufacturing of the unique E21 began there in 1975, and the plant shortly turned 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 developed. By the early 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 p.c of the welding work. On the time, that degree of automation was uncommon. It allowed BMW to lift output whereas protecting tolerances tight, which turned important as the three Collection grew into a number of physique types and trims.
Munich has been up to date continuously 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 have 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 a couple of 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 produce native markets immediately and diminished reliance on exports from Europe. Extra importantly, they pressured BMW to standardize processes globally. The identical automotive needed to come off the road the identical approach, whether or not it was in-built Germany or South Africa.
That strategy turned 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, Technology-by-Technology
1st Technology BMW 3 Collection (E21)
- Sedan – Vegetation Munich, Dingolfing – 1975–1983
2nd Technology BMW 3 Collection (E30)
- Sedan, Convertible, Touring, M3 (Coupé and Convertible) – Vegetation Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg – 1982–1994
third Technology BMW 3 Collection (E36)
- Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, Compact, M3 (Sedan, Coupé, Convertible) – Vegetation Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Spartanburg (USA), Rosslyn (South Africa) – 1990–2000
4th Technology BMW 3 Collection (E46)
- Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, Compact, M3 (Coupé and Convertible) – Vegetation Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa) – 1997–2006
fifth Technology BMW 3 Collection (E90/E91/E92/E93)
- Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, M3 (Sedan, Coupé, Convertible) – Vegetation Munich, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Dadong (China), Leipzig – 2004–2013
sixth Technology BMW 3 Collection (F30/F31/F34)
- Sedan, Touring, Gran Turismo, M3 (Sedan)
- The Coupé, Convertible, and Gran Coupé break up into the brand new BMW 4 Collection vary – Vegetation Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China) – 2011–2021
seventh Technology BMW 3 Collection (G20/G21)
- Sedan, Touring, M3 (Sedan and Touring), i3 (totally electrical, China solely) – Vegetation Munich, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China), San Luis Potosí (Mexico) – Since 2018
Issues Are As soon as Once more Altering
BMW is already getting ready the eighth technology. 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 comply with. BMW has additionally confirmed that 3 Collection manufacturing will return to Dingolfing, bringing the mannequin again to considered one of its earliest growth websites.
