The carmaker BMW is building a new plant in China with its Chinese partner Great Wall. Together, they invest around 650 million euros, the companies said at the start of construction in Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu Province. In the future, the new generation of electric vehicles of the small car series Mini will be developed and built there. Pure electric minis are already being produced at the factory in Oxford, UK.
The plant is to be built from 2020 to 2022 and employ 3000 people. This is usually followed by a multi-year period for plant construction, pre-series production and start-up phase. After that, the carmakers in the factory want to produce 160,000 vehicles per year.
BMW had announced the cooperation with Great Wall in February 2018, initially the project encountered obstacles in the approval process. The German carmaker holds half of the joint venture called "Spotlight Automotive Limited".
With the plant, BMW is strengthening its presence in China, where the government is pushing the industry to build electric cars. In China, BMW already holds a majority stake in a joint venture with carmaker Brilliance, which produces BMW-branded vehicles.