German technology around the world

A highly productive car factory

BMW set out to built a top modern car factory that meets the highest standards in Debrecen in Hungary, and many experts believe that this endeavour has been a success. The Bavarian automotive manufacturer spent over two billion euros on the greenfield development, and the plant that created over 5,000 jobs was opened in September 2025. The buildings, systems and processes were all carefully coordinated. Production is monitored with cameras and sensors, data is analysed by means of artificial intelligence and the findings are used to operate around 1,000 industrial robots. The battery park that is located on the factory site produces latest-generation high-voltage batteries. The 50,000th fully electric BMW iX3 left the production line at the end of July 2026. “Never before have we built so many vehicles in a new factory so quickly,” says Raymond Wittmann, Head of Production at BMW.

BMW is also relying on a new approach when it comes to climate action: in normal operation, the Debrecen site uses electricity from renewable sources only. According to the manufacturer, this means that around 34 kilogrammes of CO2 equivalents are emitted for building a vehicle including the battery, this is almost 90 percent less than is the case in traditional production.

However, BMW’s ambitious plans to further expand its activities are currently held back by a lack of skilled workers in Hungary. Experts from Germany fly to Debrecen on a regular basis to train local staff.

Underground giants

Under the Alps, the Bosporus and large cities around the world: technology by Herrenknecht is frequently involved wherever spectacular tunnel projects are realised. The specialist mechanical engineering company from Baden-Württemberg is among the global market leaders in its industry. Its enormous tunnel boring machines were used, for example, for building the Brenner and Gotthard Base Tunnel. The company’s Alice machine was used to build two road tunnels in Auckland in New Zealand on behalf of the Waterview Connection. Machinery by Herrenknecht was also used for building wastewater tunnels in Hong Kong.

Right now the company is involved in a large project in Adelaide in Australia. Three gigantic tunnel boring machines are used here, each of which is around 100 metres long, has a diameter of 15 metres and weighs some 3,500 tonnes. If conditions are favourable, the machines progress by between eight and ten metres per day. The River Torrens to Darlington project that is also known as T2D is expected to cost the equivalent of around 9.35 billion euros. It is the final section of a 78 kilometres long north-south corridor. The project is scheduled for completion in 2031 and will free up above-ground space for sustainable urban development.