BMW to double the number of models it manufactures in China
11/08/2014
BMW chairman, Dr Norbert Reithofer, shared the details at a press conference in early August.
In China, he said BMW will expand capacity at its plants in the Dadong and Tiexi districts of Shenyang, in Liaoning province, to a total of 400,000 units a year over the course of the next two years, and it will focus “even more strongly” on the specific demands of Chinese customers, producing six BMW models there instead of three, as it has until now.
It has also extended cooperation with its joint venture partner, Brilliance, until 2028, investing substantially in research and development; at an R&D centre it set up jointly with Brilliance in Shenyang in 2013, 500 engineers are now working on what Dr Reithofer called “the mobility of the future”.
BMW will also invest around $75 million in South Korea between now and 2020. It opened another research and development centre there in July, its fifth outside Germany. “More and more trends are emerging in Asia in particular,” the group chairman said.
With the already announced expansion at its Spartanburg plant in the US and new factories in Santa Catarina, Brazil, and at San Luis Potosí in Mexico, Dr Reithofer said: “All of these examples demonstrate that our international production network is prepared for future growth.”
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