BMW News: MINI production at Regensburg?

An article in last Sunday's Independent says BMW will be building some MINI models at Regensburg rather then expand Plant Oxford.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...y-1797239.html

Cowley, the Oxford plant that is one of the UK's biggest remaining car factories, cannot meet demand for all the new vehicles, including the new Coupe and the Roadster. It builds around 200,000 cars annually but the launch of the new Minis means the plant will soon exhaust capacity and a new production line will be needed.

Mini's owner, BMW, is thought to be looking at production at its state-of-the-art Regensburg plant where three million BMWs have now been assembled by its 10,000 workers. It is likely to add capacity there rather than in Oxford because of currency exchange rates and other costs that will make it more competitive.

Frank-Peter Arndt, BMW's head of car production, said: "In the longer term, given the strong growth of the Mini brand, we will have to think about a further production site. We could imagine a German factory for the production of Mini-based models."

Can European Delivery be far behind? !!!

There have been rumors for years. At one point there was an FAQ on the MINI USA website. An occasional Mini was spotted at the old Kundenzentrum Freimann. Those all turned out to be european models and not American ED cars. When BMW closed the London drop-off I knew Oxford delivery was was never going to happen. Too bad.

My guess why BMW hasn't offered Oxford pickup. There isn't enough hidden markup on the MINI to make it easy for BMW to offer 7% off. The FAQ on the MINI website mentioned difficulties providing insurance. The DVLA offer tax free-plates similar to the German Ausfuhrkennzeichen.

What about Munich pickup? It would be hard to deal with only offering Munich pickup for cars built at Regensburg. The majority of MINIs will still be assembled at Plant Oxford. BMW could ship them to Munich. Does anyone know if they can issue Ausfuhrkennzeichen for cars built in the UK?