German car and motorcycle manufacturer BMW has placed an order for 43,000 tonnes of zero-emission aluminum, valued at several billion euros. That's half of the annual demand for this metal at the BMW foundry in Landshut.
The supplier will be Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA), which will buy energy from Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the world's largest solar farm, located in the Dubai desert.
EGA is an integrated aluminum producer, from refinery bauxite mining and electrolysis to primary cast aluminum production. The company has been a supplier of BMW since 2013.
“Green” aluminum will go to the light metal foundry at the BMW Group plant in Landshut, which produced 2.9 million tonnes of castings last year. The scope of production includes engine components such as cylinder heads and crankcases, components for electric transmissions and large structural components for vehicle bodies.
BMW believes that the importance of aluminum in the automotive industry will increase as it is a lightweight material that, in the case of electric vehicles, compensates for the heavy weight of battery packs. BMW wants to see 7 million electrified vehicles on its roads by 2030, two-thirds of which should be fully electric.
According to BMW, the use of aluminum produced from renewable energy sources will avoid the emission of 2.5 million tons of CO 2 over 10 years.
