See the Army of Robots It Takes to Build a BMW

Automakers depend on a lot to get consumers to buy their wares: quality, performance, design, technology. But the single most important factor in keeping an automaker profitable in the long term is likely manufacturing. Investing in a new model—and the plants and components that of into making them a reality—can easily run into the billions of dollars.

BMW, the world’s top-selling premium automaker by sales volume, has been expanding its lineup while attempting to maintain its profitability. As part of a strategy, partly overseen by its 49-year-old CEO, Harald Krueger, BMW has been aiming to make 30% more vehicles with the same number of workers while trying to reduce production costs per vehicle by raising economies of scale in components, drive systems and modules. Here take a closer look at what goes into making a BMW.