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.