[Aika Car Domestic New Car Original]
Since the launch of the beam vehicle project (the future domestic pure electric MINI manufacturer) joint venture between Great Wall Motor and BMW Group in 2019 in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, various news about domestic MINI models has not stopped. Recently, at a BMW Group internal online communication meeting, an internal executive broke the news again: in addition to the two pure electric models cooperated with the Great Wall, the fuel version of the MINI will also be officially put into operation at the Shenyang plant, while the Chinese market will still sell imported models from the Oxford plant in the United Kingdom.
In fact, the fuel version of THE MINI is about to be produced in the plan for early warning. As early as July 2021, a number of internal employees broke the news to the media that BMW Brilliance had started a new car production project codenamed U28. Just one month after the news was revealed, BMW China announced that it had acquired a series of assets including production lines, factories and an equity stake in Brilliance Automotive Manufacturing Co., Ltd. for 1.633 billion yuan.
According to relevant information, some of the assets related to The production of Zhonghua Automobile include 3 land use rights worth 240 million yuan; 19 housing buildings and 20 structures, worth 700 million yuan; 179 machinery and equipment, worth 293 million yuan; and Brilliance Group's 100% equity in Brilliance Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which is worth 0.45 million yuan due to the offset of assets and liabilities, totaling 1.233 billion yuan. In addition, the remaining 400 million yuan of BMW China is mainly used to obtain a production license for Chinese cars, that is, a vehicle manufacturing qualification. According to people familiar with the matter, the acquired production lines and factories can only produce fuel vehicles and do not have the conditions for the production of electric vehicles.
MINI ROCKETMAN concept car
However, BMW has previously announced that the MINI brand will be fully electrified in 2025, so many people outside speculate that BMW's production of the fuel version of THE MINI with the help of the Chinese production line may be just a transitional plan aimed at increasing sales. Another financial source speculated that the reason why BMW decided to produce a domestic MINI fuel version model may be closely related to the change in its share ratio of the joint venture company in 2022. In October 2018, BMW was the first to change its shareholding ratio in its joint venture in China, increasing its stake in BMW Brilliance by 25%, raising its final controlling stake to 75%, which undoubtedly greatly increased its total profit in China. As for the beam car cooperated with the Great Wall, the first model will most likely be an electric vehicle based on the ROCKETMAN concept car, which according to the plan, will only be produced in China and may be exported to overseas markets in the future.
In addition, if the above plan is true, the future three origins of the MINI will not affect the brand's existing sales and service network, according to the cooperation agreement signed by BMW and the Great Wall in 2018, the future MINI electric vehicle will adhere to the "joint research and development, separate sales, and joint construction of a new brand" cooperation model, that is, the shareholders of Beam Auto jointly develop and produce future MINI electric vehicles and Great Wall Motor electric vehicle products, and each brand will continue to use existing channels for sales.
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