Official: MINI to Build Upcoming Coupe & Speedster at Oxford Plant
At the Oxford MINI plant BMW officially announced that the upcoming Coupe and Speedster were officially going into production at the Oxford Plant. We had heard for several months that the chassis (or body in white) would be built in Oxford and shipped to a 3rd party for final assembly. Either our sources were mistaken or BMW has changed its mind because within the official announcement was also talk of further plant expansion to take on the new production.
Our sources at the plant are telling us that, until today, there had been quite a few concerns about job security after 2011 and that this announcement was meant as a pep talk of sorts.
<p>Interesting, I thought that Oxford was already running at pretty full capacity. A new model requires at least a partial new production line I would assume so could be interesting to see how this all works out.</p>
<p>It requires new jigging in the body in white phase, due to differing body panels. If you look at the Concept it shares a vast majority of body parts. everything from the bonet to the door is the same, including the front half of the interior.
Skills will be learned on the line during production as with any new model. Dedicated ‘Launch Teams’ follow the new model and assist line workers with their new process.</p>
<p>Agree with Billy, this model variation won’t be terribly difficult to implement given today’s “flexible” manufacturing lines. As a Canadian example, consider how different the Chrysler minivans were from the Pacifica crossover (much more product variation between the models than the Coopster/Speedster from the Coupe/Clubman) – yet they ran down the same assembly line concurrently through welding/paint shop/assembly. Consider also the existing variations being produced at Oxford (Coupe, Clubman, Convertible). It’s a logistics challenge to add two additional closely-related variants but is by no means unprecedented.
Good news for the Oxford crew that I am sure they were glad to receive!</p>
<p>I wonder though…why the concern about job stability after 2011? Is BMW considering shifting production of the MINI away from Oxford?</p>
<p>Would bet some of the concern is centered around the outsourced manufacturing of the R60.</p>
<p>You may be right JonPD. Lots of things about the R60 are cause for concern. ;)</p>
<p>God I hope they redesign the rear end of that thing before it goes to production.</p>
<p>my toungue fell out of my head with this HORRY CRORW!!! it is beautiful! me want!</p>
<p>I can’t believe it will go into production.. it is nothing more than current mini – practicality + ugliness.</p>