Mini expanding production
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In response to increasing worldwide demand for Mini cars, the BMW Group is extending its international production network by opening additional local production plants for selected models.
For the first time since the relaunch of the brand in 2001, preparations are under way for the production of Mini cars in several growing markets outside Europe, the company said in a statement.
As a result, cars from the British premium brand will be rolling off assembly lines beyond Europe for the first time later this year. Production of the Mini Countryman is currently being prepared at the BMW plant in Chennai.
The new Mini assembly facility has been brought on stream just a year after the cars went on sale in India, and will help to meet the steadily increasing demand for Mini cars in the Indian market.
The first models to be produced in Chennai will be the Mini Cooper D Countryman and the Mini One Countryman.
In recent times India has become an increasingly significant market for the BMW Group, which has operated its own sales company on the subcontinent since 2007. At the start of 2012, Mini opened its first five showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, making India the 100th market in the global sales network. A total of 302 cars were sold here from March to December 2012.
BMW’s Chennai production plant was built in March 2007 and has since taken on production of the BMW 3 Series and BMW 5 Series as well as the BMW X1 and BMW X3 models. The facility, which has a production area covering around 13,000 square metres, is located in the Mahindra World City business zone in the southwest of India, roughly 40 kilometres northwest of Chennai.
Mini delivered a record 301,526 vehicles to customers worldwide in 2012, with markets on the American and Asian continents making a particularly strong contribution to this 5.8-per-cent increase in sales over the previous year.
Five of the seven models in the current Mini line-up are produced in the brand’s native Britain. The Mini plant in Oxford represents the central pillar in the BMW Group’s British production network, which also includes the Hams Hall engine factory in Birmingham and the press shop in Swindon. The Mini Countryman and Mini Paceman, meanwhile, roll off the assembly line at Mini’s production and development partner Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, and are also supplied with engines from Hams Hall.
