Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Hits a BMW Car

Wire arc additive manufacturing is moving from BMW’s campus into a production vehicle. In a September 10, 2026 interview with TCT Magazine, BMW Group Head of Additive Manufacturing Timo Göbel said the company will begin series production with WAAM next year and launch a car with its first WAAM structural aluminium component. The part is unnamed and still in final qualification. For shops that print polymer fixtures, the signal is scale: arc-deposited metal, not a desktop substitute.

What's Happening

TCT’s interview with Timo Göbel is the source for the 2027 timeline. Göbel would not name the component. He did say BMW uses WAAM for structural aluminium because of stiffness-to-weight, and that the part is “between 30% and 40% lighter than a standard die-cast aluminium part” and, in his framing, cheaper as well as lighter. Those percentages and the cost claim are BMW’s, stated while qualification is still underway.

BMW has worked on WAAM since 2015 and started building test components on an MX3D production cell in 2021. Göbel’s comparison to laser powder bed fusion is blunt: LPBF is “too slow and too expensive” when the geometry is large and deposition rate matters. He also sketched a limit. As parts get bigger, WAAM can beat die casting on value — until a conventional die-cast system is cheaper again. Quality assurance gets harder as the part grows. This first application, he said, is already “a pretty big part.”

Context from the same interview: more than 1.6 million 3D-printed parts have left BMW’s Additive Manufacturing Campus since 2020, with about 100,000 more per year at other plants. Recent work has supported Neue Klasse vehicles and the latest electric drive. WAAM sits inside a broader plan to invest in new systems, larger build volumes, and digitally connected process chains. None of that names the 2027 part; it only shows that BMW already treats additive as production infrastructure, not a prototype hobby.

Why Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Matters for Shops

If you run a small manufacturing cell, BMW’s move is not a shopping list for a welding robot. It is a map of where metal additive earns a seat: large structural aluminium, high deposition, geometry that die-cast tooling cannot justify, and a quality plan that can survive series production. Göbel’s 30–40% mass cut versus die-cast is the kind of number purchasing teams will ask you to match. Treat it as a vendor claim until BMW publishes the part, the load case, and the test standard.

The practical split for a shop that already prints polymer is scale and material. Meter-class weld metal is for chassis-adjacent structure and tools that used to wait on a casting die. Desktop continuous-fiber extrusion is for jigs, nest fixtures, and brackets that need designed stiffness in plastic without standing up a WAAM cell. Confusing the two leads to the wrong capital request: either a metal cell you cannot qualify, or a polymer printer asked to replace aluminium.

How Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Compares to Other Metal Routes

• Feedstock. WAAM uses welding wire. LPBF uses powder in a chamber. Die casting uses molten aluminium in a tool. Desktop continuous fiber uses thermoplastic plus a tow — not metal.
• Rate and size. Göbel’s point to TCT is deposition rate and large envelopes versus LPBF. Die casting still wins when volume makes the die cheap enough.
• Geometry. Stacked weld beads can leave hollow or topology-driven shapes that a die cannot pull. You still machine datums. LPBF holds finer features on smaller parts.
• Mass claim. BMW cites 30–40% lighter than a standard die-cast aluminium part for this unnamed structural component. Independent confirmation is not in the TCT piece.
• Qualification. Göbel says the car launches in 2027 and the part is in final qualification. Production intent is not the same as a released drawing.
• Shop takeaway. Match process to part size and certification. Do not treat a polymer printer as a WAAM stand-in, or WAAM as a drop-in for every LPBF metal job.

What the Research Says

Evstifeev and colleagues compared WAAM-built 5056 aluminium-magnesium alloy with conventionally cold-rolled material under static and dynamic (split-Hopkinson) loading. Using a structurally temporal analysis with an incubation-time criterion, they found WAAM 5056 reached strength levels comparable to the rolled stock and argued the process can be a competitive route for high-strength aluminium under shock loads. That is coupon-scale evidence, not BMW’s unnamed body or chassis part, but it supports the idea that arc-deposited Al-Mg can carry structural duty if the process window is controlled (Evstifeev et al., 2025).

Langelandsvik and co-authors reviewed aluminium alloy development specifically for WAAM. They highlight high deposition rates, better energy coupling than some laser processes, and a work envelope that is not boxed by a powder chamber — the same reasons Göbel gives for picking WAAM over LPBF on large parts. The review also catalogs porosity, cracking, and alloy-specific defects that still have to be managed in production. BMW’s 2027 part will live or die on those details, not on the interview’s mass percentage alone (Langelandsvik et al., 2021).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is wire arc additive manufacturing on a car part?

Wire arc additive manufacturing melts aluminum (or similar) wire with an electric arc and stacks weld beads with a robot until the part exists. BMW’s Head of Additive Manufacturing told TCT the first structural aluminium WAAM component is in final qualification for a 2027 vehicle. Mass and cost claims in that interview are BMW’s.

How does WAAM compare to laser powder bed fusion for large parts?

WAAM deposits metal at high rates with a welding-style process and a large work envelope. Laser powder bed fusion fuses powder in a chamber and is slower and more expensive when the part is big, according to BMW’s Timo Göbel in TCT. LPBF still wins on fine features and smaller certified metal parts.

Can a desktop continuous-fiber printer replace a WAAM aluminum car part?

No. WAAM builds large structural aluminium that BMW is qualifying against die-cast metal. Desktop continuous-fiber printers extrude polymer with a continuous tow for stiffness in plastic fixtures and brackets. Different feedstock, different loads, different certification. Use each at the scale it is built for.

Fibricate's Place in This Story

BMW’s WAAM cell and a desktop composite printer occupy opposite ends of the stiffness-to-weight conversation. Companies like Fibricate, whose FibreSeeker 3 continuous carbon fiber 3D printer lays thermoplastic with a continuous tow from feedstock such as the continuous carbon fiber spool, sit where shops need fiber paths on a bench, not an aluminium weld robot. The 2027 BMW part is factory metal at vehicle scale. Keep the lanes separate: WAAM for large qualified aluminium; continuous fiber for fixtures that should never wait on a die or an arc cell.

What to Watch Next

Watch which vehicle Göbel’s part ships on, whether BMW publishes the load case and mass versus the die-cast baseline, and how inspection (in-process sensing, NDT, machining allowances) is written into the series process. Over the next 12–24 months, expect more OEMs to talk WAAM for large aluminium as LPBF stays on smaller, finer metal. For polymer shops the watch item is simpler: metal additive is eating some castings. Your printer still earns its keep on the composite aids that make those lines run.

References & Further Reading

1. Evstifeev, A., Mavlyutov, A., Volosevich, D., Gushchina, M., Klimova-Korsmik, O., Nasonovskiy, K., & Shabunina, S. (2025). Dynamic and Static Strength Analysis of 5056 Aluminum Alloy Fabricated by Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing. Metals.
2. Langelandsvik, G., Akselsen, O. M., Furu, T., & Roven, H. J. (2021). Review of Aluminum Alloy Development for Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing. Materials.
3. BMW to launch car with WAAM 3D printed component in 2027. TCT Magazine. Retrieved September 10, 2026.