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 automobiles 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 many years, the three Collection has been the fixed in BMW’s manufacturing system — the automobile that made growth potential 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 fashion or drivetrain. The manufacturing unit used overhead conveyor programs and programmable welding tools that allowed BMW to regulate output and specification with out stopping the road.
That mattered because the automobile developed. By the early Nineteen Eighties, the second-generation 3 Collection pushed Munich additional. In 1982, BMW launched a completely 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 retaining tolerances tight, which turned important as the three Collection grew into a number of physique types and trims.
Munich has been up to date continually 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 heart 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 automobile, to the identical normal, in a couple of place on the similar 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 provide native markets instantly and diminished reliance on exports from Europe. Extra importantly, they pressured BMW to standardize processes globally. The identical automobile 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 things that adopted. With one exception, each new BMW plant over the previous a number of many years 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 – Crops Munich, Dingolfing – 1975–1983
2nd Technology BMW 3 Collection (E30)
- Sedan, Convertible, Touring, M3 (Coupé and Convertible) – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg – 1982–1994
third Technology BMW 3 Collection (E36)
- Sedan, Coupé, Convertible, Touring, Compact, M3 (Sedan, Coupé, Convertible) – Crops 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) – Crops 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) – Crops 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 cut up into the brand new BMW 4 Collection vary – Crops Munich, Dingolfing, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China) – 2011–2021
seventh Technology BMW 3 Collection (G20/G21)
- Sedan, Touring, M3 (Sedan and Touring), i3 (absolutely electrical, China solely) – Crops Munich, Regensburg, Rosslyn (South Africa), Tiexi (China), San Luis Potosí (Mexico) – Since 2018
Issues Are As soon as Once more Altering
BMW is already making ready the eighth technology. A absolutely 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 one among its earliest growth websites.
