News > BMW Investing BIG Money in MINI Cooper Factory Expansion
Hints of new models to come…
BMW is investing time, money and people to expand its MINI
plant in Oxford, England. Time - completion estimated by 2007. Money - to the
tune of $190 million. People – an estimated 200 new jobs.
At first glance it seems that BMW simply wants to keep up
with demand. Worldwide demand for the MINI Cooper has outstripped supply ever since the
MINI's launch in 2002 and, unlike the “other” fashionably small car, the new
Volkswagen Beetle, sales have remained consistently strong.
But a closer look hints at something even bigger than
capacity. It's flexibility. BMW is including a body-shell production plant in
the expansion, as well as a new paint shop. BMW's production chief, Norbert
Reithofer, says “these measures will allow us to react even more flexibly to the
high demand for MINI throughout the world.”
Flexibility will provide the capability to produce a MINI
roadster perhaps? …Or a MINI wagon? The next generation MINI Cooper is expected to
begin coming off the new plant's line in 2007, and BMW has stated that that is
their target year for a new go round. Exactly what shapes the new MINI will take
is anybody's guess.
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