BMW has confirmed it will stop building the electric version of the Mini in the UK next year, in a move that leaves its Oxford plant entirely reliant on petrol models for much of the coming decade.
The German carmaker launched its first battery version of the historic Mini Cooper in 2019 as part of a wave of models released by manufacturers to help them meet tightened European emissions rules.
The model has proved more successful than expected, picking up numerous awards and growing to account for a third of the vehicles produced at BMW’s Oxford facility.
The German carmaker announced in 2019 that it would make an updated battery-powered Mini in China from 2024, which it will export globally, including to Britain.
The model, made by BMW’S Chinese joint venture partner Great Wall Motors, will have roughly double the range of the current version.
BMW formally announced the end of the first Oxford-built electric Mini last November.
Although the carmaker had always planned to halt production after four years — roughly half the industry’s standard lifecycle — the withdrawal of one of the most popular British-built battery models will still come as a blow to the sector.
Jaguar Land Rover’s first electric car, the Jaguar I-Pace, is already made in Austria, while Norfolk-based Lotus will make its first electric SUVs at a plant in China.
However, new investments from Nissan and Stellantis mean that UK electric vehicle production is expected to keep rising in the coming years.
The UK car industry has called for more support during the fuel transition, particularly to attract battery manufacturers to invest in Britain in order to enable current plants to shift production over to electric in the coming decade.
The most popular UK-built electric car remains the Nissan Leaf, which is built in Sunderland.
Although BMW’s Oxford plant was adapted in 2019 to make the electric model, and is able to produce petrol and battery cars side-by-side, the assembly line still required additional manual workers every time an electric version was produced, in order to fit the imported Germany battery pack.
The facility “is just not geared for mass production” of electric cars, the Mini brand’s chief executive Stefanie Wurst said.
The plant requires “major investments” to be able to make battery models at scale in the future, she added.
The company expects electric car production will return to Oxford at a future point, but has not set a date for the next model.
Typically carmakers renew vehicles every seven or eight years, so the future generation of the forthcoming electric Mini is likely to be decided towards the end of this decade.
The Mini brand has pledged to sell only electric cars from the early 2030s, and intends to always retain a base in Oxford.
The plant will make petrol five and three-door versions, as well as producing the open top model that was previously made in the Netherlands.
BMW also produces Mini in Germany at Leipzig, where it will make the electric version of the larger Mini Countryman. Its new Chinese plant will also produce an all-electric model called the Aceman.
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2022-10-15 17:51:06Z
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