How BMW of North America Uses Meta Quest 3 to Bring High-Voltage Battery Training to Life
The batteries that power BMW electric vehicles are intricate, powerful devices—part of a new chapter in a century-long tradition of craftsmanship applied to cutting-edge technology. With 400 volts and enough energy to take 6,000 pounds of steel from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, each battery is a complex network of specialized screws and sealants, cables and chemicals. Working on these devices for repairs requires thorough training and specialized knowledge.
Because of the high voltage involved, truly visualizing and understanding what these batteries look like in operation becomes impossible in the physical world—and that’s where BMW’s new VR training tool “Impossible Battery” comes in.
“Hands On” Training
Impossible Battery on Meta Quest 3 is a digital twin of BMW’s fifth generation EV battery designed to help their technicians train and practice working on these devices in VR. Every single piece of hardware that goes into a battery is reproduced digitally, allowing technicians to take them apart, fix them, and put them back together—all without touching a physical tool or bolt.
The idea was born from a Maker Challenge BMW of North America to spark ideas for using augmented and virtual reality in its business. Participants pitched and evaluated dozens of concepts, from virtual showrooms and customer demos to engineering reviews. Ultimately, immersive training stood out for its immediate, tangible value.
“It was a really relevant use case—it was important for us to build something that had a real relevance for th business, not just a showcase,” says BMW Corporate Strategy Manager for Innovations Holger Raabe. “We were extremely fortunate to have two very strong teams collaborating on this effort: our BMW Group University, who designed the experience, and our IT Research Center, which took care of the implementation. Everything was built in-house. Together, we made the impossible possible.”
Although BMW’s designers looked at other hardware, they found that Quest 3 was the perfect headset for their needs. Because Quest 3 is a standalone device—no external PC, cables, or other hardware required—it can be deployed with virtually no setup: Just hand a headset to a technician. Its all-in-one nature and workshop-ready design make it easy to scale and capable of withstanding the demands of a rugged service environment, and its Passthrough technology, which lets developers blend virtual content with a view of your physical surroundings, helps people feel at home when working inside the device.
“Our first prototype was built in fully immersive VR, but our technicians liked it much better when they were still in their own room with a digital battery standing there than feeling completely shut off from the physical world,” says Raabe. “It also makes it easy for the instructor, who’s not in a headset, to show things to the person working inside the experience.”
While actual repairs need to be performed by certified technicians, Impossible Battery can be used by anyone. This makes it perfect for new hires getting up to speed on high-voltage concepts, non-technical staff seeking a deeper understanding of BMW’s EV batteries, or refresher training for seasoned technicians.
Impossible Battery also features gamification mechanics with “missions” based on specific repairs. The simulation keeps track of how long a repair takes as well as how much it costs—for example, the technician needs to be absolutely sure that they’ve fixed everything before putting the seal back on because a new part is required every time the battery is sealed. You don’t want to make that mistake with a physical battery because the bill would be real.
This allows trainees to get up to speed on the realities of EV battery repair, but it also allows experts to show off a little, vying to see who can make repairs fastest and at the lowest expense. Eventually, BMW plans to introduce global leaderboards so training centers can compete on speed and precision.
Beyond the immediately practical applications, there’s also “Impossible Mode,” which lets technicians see the battery in ways the physical world would never permit. With Impossible Mode, they can take the casing off of the battery while it’s still in operation and watch the electrical current flow through it.
“We do an X-ray into the battery, and then show, for example, how the electricity is flowing or how the coolant liquids are flowing,” says Raabe. “You can literally put your fingers on two points of the battery—something you could never physically do—and see what the current drop is between the two points. These are such cool things, and you just couldn’t do them any other way.”
Shaping the Future of Industrial Training
Impossible Battery’s early success has led BMW to begin considering a world of possibility based on producing an industrial digital twin.
While the initial rollout focuses on BMW’s current high-voltage packs, future updates will add legacy and next-generation battery models, so field technicians can rehearse previous generations and learn new ones as easily as today’s standard units. And it will also allow master technicians at headquarters to create immersive instructions that could be used to train fellow technicians—or even be combined with AI systems to train production robots to perform the same tasks.
Industries from medicine to construction and beyond need to train practitioners on high-risk, low-frequency tasks that must be done perfectly every time. Immersive training through virtual reality bridges the gap between knowledge and expertise, helping people visualize, experience, and practice rare and dangerous activities in a safe environment.
Raabe believes that these types of applications are only the beginning.
“Building digital twins and integrating them into our workflows is likely to be the number one use of industrial VR going forward,” he says. “Programs that would have been too dangerous, ineffective, or just cost-prohibitive in the past can be developed, rolled out, and scaled for a fraction of the cost using VR.”
