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BMW Starts Building Hydrogen Pipeline to Connect Leipzig Plant to the Grid

Construction has started on BMW’s roughly two-kilometre hydrogen pipeline to its Leipzig plant, with commissioning planned for the first half of 2028.
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BMW began construction on 30 September 2026 on a roughly two-kilometre pipeline intended to connect its Leipzig vehicle plant directly to the hydrogen grid. The connection is planned to be completed and commissioned in the first half of 2028; it is not yet in service. BMW describes Leipzig as the first vehicle plant worldwide planned to have a direct hydrogen-grid connection.

What the pipeline will do at BMW’s Leipzig plant

The new link is intended to let the plant use more hydrogen in energy-intensive production, particularly in its paint shop. Hydrogen is already used at Leipzig for intralogistics and in dual-fuel paint-shop furnaces. A direct supply is expected to make greater use possible in high-temperature processes such as paint drying, while supporting energy resilience and further production decarbonisation.

BMW Plant Leipzig Director Petra Peterhänsel said the pipeline would allow the paint shop to be powered with hydrogen “to a far greater extent than ever before,” and called it a milestone for energy resilience and production decarbonisation. BMW has not published a project cost, expected hydrogen volume or quantified emissions reduction, so the announcement does not establish how much energy use or emissions the connection will ultimately displace.

Hydrogen equipment already on site

BMW reports that Leipzig operates more than 230 hydrogen fuel-cell forklifts and tug trains, as well as eleven dual-fuel paint furnaces. Those figures describe equipment at the plant, not the capacity or output of the new pipeline.

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Who is building and supplying the connection

BMW has a capacity reservation contract with ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH, which is responsible for developing the regional core hydrogen network. MITNETZ GAS GmbH is to build the roughly two-kilometre plant connection, including its gas pressure regulation and metering station. These are distinct roles: ONTRAS develops the regional network, while MITNETZ constructs the spur and associated station.

Wirtschaftsförderung Sachsen says the project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Free State of Saxony. The published information does not state the funding amount.

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Why the current target is 2028

BMW’s schedule has changed. Its 1 October 2025 release expected delivery from mid-2027, but the newer announcement, dated 30 September 2026, sets completion and commissioning for the first half of 2028. The 2028 window is the current stated target; the earlier date is no longer the forecast to use.

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How the plant connection fits Germany’s hydrogen network

The Leipzig project is a short industrial spur, not a national trunk network. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy described a planned hydrogen core network of 9,040 kilometres, with around 60 percent of its pipeline length intended to come from converting natural-gas pipelines. The ministry’s 2024 plan also set 2032 feed-in capacity of 101 GW and take-off capacity of 87 GW.

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Those national figures describe planned network scale and capacity targets, not the Leipzig pipeline’s capacity or a guarantee of hydrogen supply to the plant by a particular date. The roughly two-kilometre connection is intended to link one factory to the wider system; BMW’s announcement does not give its throughput.

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