The Nedcar plant – former home of DAF, Volvo and Mitsubishi vehicles – has been officially (re)opened by King Willem-Alexander as a Mini hatchback contract assembler 18 months after Mitsubishi sold it.
Union official Suat Koetloe told local media at least 30 trial production Minis have been built. From this month more than 100 production cars cars a day will be made.
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Production will be further increased later this year on the way to an eventual 200,000 cars per year. BMW’s own Mini plant in Oxford can build 260,000 a year. Countryman and Paceman models are contracted out to Magna Steyr in Austria and some assembly from KD kits takes place in import-restricted markets like India and Malaysia.
Nedcar closed in November 2012 after building its last Mitsubishi Colt. The plant has since been thoroughly renovated for the Mini contract.
The workforce at VDL NedCar has increased to about 2,200 people compared to 1,500 in 2012. New owner VDL had had to guarantee the 1,500 jobs as part of the deal to buy the plant for EUR1 so those former workers had first chance at the new roles making Minis.
Around 300 worked on plant preparatory work. Some production staff were trained at other BMW plants. Others did voluntary work for temporary periods.
Eindhoven-based VDL, which also makes buses and parts for cars and machinery recently announced that it would expand the car plant headcount to over 3,000 in coming years.
For the unions, the reopening of Nedcar is a “dream come true”, officials said. It had seemed the only large Dutch car factory had closed its doors for good in 2012 but involvement of government officials, including former economic minister Maxime Verhagen, led to a much happier eventual outcome.
