BMW can’t make cars fast enough in China. Chinese customers must suffer through interminably long delivery times for their imported Siebener. To solve this problem, BMW is building a second production plant in China together with its joint venture partner Brilliance, to be opened in 2012. The plant is already too small.
BMW announced today that the previously announced investment of 560 million euros into the plant will be lifted to a billion euros ($1.44 billion).
The additional money will be used to build a press shop, a paint shop and to expand the capacity of the Shenyang plant. It looks as if a CKD plant will be upgraded to full scale production.
The BMW Group has been producing BMW 3 Series and 5 Series with its joint venture partner, Brilliance, since 2003. The new plant will add the X1. China has become the BMW Group’s third-largest market worldwide.
Fortunately, there are Chinese companies willing to manufacture BMW knockoffs to help relieve the demand.
Are those hastily churned-out Brillance BMWs better or worse than those built in Germany? Parallel long-term tests of both would be most intriguing, but I have yet to hear of any publication, print or otherwise, doing so.
They’re probably exactly the same.
Though ask about Town Cars from Canada.