Demand for the BMW iX3 (NA5) and the Neue Klasse lineup around it has caught up with BMW’s Steyr plant faster than planned. Since Monday, the Austrian factory has been running a second shift on its electric motor line, and weekly output has jumped to more than 4,000 units as a result. BMW says the two-shift operation hasn’t even hit its ceiling yet, which means that number is still climbing.
Plant management is now projecting well over 100,000 electric motors built in Steyr for 2026. That’s already a big revision upward, but if current output holds through the year, the total could clear 200,000 motors instead. Every unit gets shipped to BMW’s Debrecen plant in Hungary, where it’s installed on the rear axle of the iX3.
Gen6 Electric Motors
The motor itself is the sixth generation of BMW’s eDrive tech, an electrically excited synchronous unit making 240 kW (326 hp) and 435 Nm of torque in the standard iX3. BMW pairs it with a smaller asynchronous motor on the front axle, sourced from an outside supplier rather than built in-house. The entry-level iX3 40 gets a milder version of the Steyr motor, tuned to 320 hp and 500 Nm. BMW has more variants coming over the next several months, including both weaker and stronger versions for the i3 (NA0), covering everything from a base model to a range-topping M60.
The payoff shows up in range. The iX3 hits 805 km on the WLTP cycle, and the i3, with a flatter, more aerodynamic, lighter body, stretches that to 912 km. Steyr’s motors aren’t the only reason for those numbers, but they’re a meaningful part of the equation. The same sixth-generation hardware is headed for more of the lineup. BMW confirmed it’s coming to the iX5 60 xDrive (G65) and the iX6 (G66), both due out as the Neue Klasse rollout continues.
