BMW to End Mini Production at Magna Steyr
MINI Countryman cars being assembled at Magna Steyr’s Austrian facility.
The Kleine Zeitung newspaper reported on Thursday that the BMW Group will end contract production of Mini cars by Magna Steyr in 2016. Automotive News reports that the Austrian supplier currently builds the Mini Countryman and Mini Paceman. BMW will move production of the two models to BMW’s own Mini factory in Oxford, England, and to Mitsubishi’s former NedCar facility in the Netherlands, where the Dutch group VDL will start Mini production under contract later this year. Magna Steyr’s corporate parent, Magna International, said in a statement that its relationship with BMW will continue through a new vehicle manufacturing contract.
According to the Kleine Zeitung, Magna Steyr’s role will not be to build particular BMW Group cars but rather it will hold capacity for a variety of models as demand dictates. Those would likely be high-volume models like the BMW 5 series and 3 Series cars. The newspaper says that the contract will probably cover a volume of over 100,000 vehicles over 6 to 7 years.
Neither Magna Steyr or BMW has commented on the report.
Magna Steyr currently also assembles vehicles for Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot.
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Magna must have a new contract with some auto maker for production this facility. It was just announced that they have extended their lease at the Thondorf facility in Graz to 2024.
Just a minor correction, about 100k annually, not over the whole lifetime of the project.