As BMW maps out new global plant capacity to produce a wave of next-generation vehicles, it has turned to Silicon Valley to bring its factories online faster.

The German luxury marque joins peers Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and others in partnering with chipmaker Nvidia to plan real-world factories in a virtual world.

Nvidia's Omniverse platform will allow BMW to create a "digital twin" of its assembly plant in Debrecen, Hungary, where the automaker will build full-electric cars on the Neue Klasse platform starting in 2025.

Factory planners can use the digital blueprint to test-fit a piece of tooling, integrate robots into the assembly process and improve human ergonomics. Construction has begun at the Debrecen factory, which BMW said is its first plant that will be virtually planned and validated.

Nedeljkovic said the partnership "combines BMW's industrial engineering know-how and Nvidia's computing know-how."

Nvidia has its roots in designing graphics processing units and software for the gaming industry. The firm knows how to "link thousands of people into one virtual world," enabling them to communicate and collaborate in real time, Nedeljkovic said.

Meanwhile, BMW now has thousands of factory planners worldwide working on assembly layouts, robot simulations and other systems.

Planners use a digital twin to map out a factory's plumbing and HVAC systems before the first concrete gets poured. Suppliers also plug into the virtual world to collaborate on the assembly line workflow.

"Our planners worldwide are working in one virtual factory and optimizing the process," Nedeljkovic said. "You see the problems ... in the virtual world, you solve them, and off you go,"

Richard Kerris, vice president of Omniverse platform development at Nvidia, said a true-to-reality digital twin can give an automaker "superpowers."

"When you have a digital twin, you can do things in the virtual world before the costly commitment to doing it in the physical world," Kerris told Automotive News Europe.