article ｜ Cheng Chen
Edit ｜ Sun Chunfang
The domestic project of MINI, which has attracted much attention, has made substantial progress.
According to First Financial on the evening of October 16, BMW China said that the Oxford factory in the UK, a subsidiary of BMW Group, will suspend the production of electric models, but will not stop the production of MINI fuel models. According to reports, BMW, a light beam car that cooperated with Great Wall Motors, will be responsible for producing MINI electric models, but BMW has not responded to whether MINI electric models are only produced in China.
Previously, domestic media quoted the British " Times " report on the 15th that Stefanie Wurst, the new person in charge of the BMW MINI brand, said that since the Oxford factory must start production of fuel vehicles and electric vehicles on the same production line, this production method will lead to low operating efficiency. The company decided that the Oxford factory will only start production of fuel models from 2023, "BMW's next-generation MINI Aceman will be produced in China."
The report also stated that BMW Group plans to transfer the MINI electric vehicle production line to China by the end of 2023 and hand it over to beam automobile production.
This is also consistent with the MINI electrification process announced by BMW Group previously.
In July this year, BMW Group released the MINI Concept Aceman global concept car. This MINI electric model named Aceman will be put into production by the Zhangjiagang factory of Guangbeam Automobile, and road testing is expected to begin in 2024.
MINI brand is one of the main positions for BMW Group's electrification transformation.
According to the strategy previously released by BMW Group, the MINI brand will launch its last fuel vehicle in 2025, and all pure electric models will be put into production thereafter. By 2027, pure electric models will account for at least 50% of the models sold by MINI brand; by the early 2030s, MINI will become the first brand under the BMW Group to achieve pure electrification.
Chinese market plays an important role in it.
Previously, BMW said that MINI pure electric vehicles will start production in China in 2023, and the first batch of two MINI electric vehicles will be introduced, which will be put into production by beam vehicles. Before MINI started the electrification transformation, the Chinese market was already the fastest growing market for the brand's sales worldwide.
In fact, as the carrier of MINI's domestic production project, the establishment of the beam car has not been short.
In July 2018, Great Wall Motor and BMW Group signed a joint venture contract in Berlin, with the two parties holding 50% of the shares and jointly establishing Beam Auto.
In November 2019, the launch ceremony of the beam automobile production base was launched in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province. In June 2020, the construction of the Zhangjiagang factory of Sunbeam Auto began, with a total investment of about 5.1 billion yuan, a planned annual production capacity of 160,000 vehicles, and is expected to be completed in 2022.
However, it has been established for more than 4 years. In the rapidly changing new energy vehicle track, beam car has not started to produce MINI electric models, which is interpreted by the industry as "get up early and get late".
, also an electric vehicle project jointly ventured by private enterprises and multinational car companies, Gely brand, which cooperated with Mercedes-Benz, announced the establishment of a joint venture in March 2019. In April this year, the smart brand launched its first pure electric model, and the first batch of new cars will be delivered in September this year.
However, since this year, beam cars have significantly accelerated their layout pace. "Financial World" weekly learned that from 2022 to the present, Beam Auto has successively released a large number of recruitment positions, covering multiple fields such as R&D, production and manufacturing, and management.
