BMW is in discussions with the British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to receive a grant of 75 million pounds in order to maintain the production of electric Mini vehicles at its Cowley plant near Oxford. The German carmaker had previously faced rumors that it might end its electric Mini production in the UK and move it to China in partnership with Great Wall, with conventional models still being produced in the UK and the electric Countryman being built in Germany. However, these rumors were later debunked by German media which reported that BMW would continue building electric Minis in the UK, as the production sites in China and Germany alone were insufficient.
Currently, both electric and conventional Minis are manufactured on the same platform, making it possible to produce both at the Cowley plant. However, the next generation electric Mini will have its own platform developed by Great Wall, which was seen as an inefficient and costly option for parallel production at the Cowley plant. It now seems that BMW may have found a solution to this issue, through the grant negotiations with BEIS.
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According to Sky News, BMW is in talks with the British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to receive a grant from the Whitehall’s Automotive Transformation Fund. The amount of the grant is reported to be 75 million pounds and it would be used to continue the production of electric Mini vehicles at the Cowley plant near Oxford. However, neither BMW nor the BEIS has made any official statement regarding the matter. Industry sources suggest that a deal between the carmaker and the government could be reached in the coming weeks.
At present, BMW produces about 40,000 electric Minis annually at the Cowley plant in Oxfordshire, which has been manufacturing conventional Minis since the 1950s. However, Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta recently stated in an interview with the BBC that the UK is becoming less attractive as a production location compared to other countries in Europe due to higher energy prices and inflation. Nissan has already committed to building the next generation Nissan Leaf in its Sunderland plant, but it remains to be seen if the electric versions of the Juke and Qashqai will also be produced there.
It is imperative that the UK government continues to support carmakers in their transition towards EVs and maintains the country’s competitiveness in the automotive industry.
