Contract assember VDL Nedcar in Born, the Netherlands, will begin production of the BMW X1 small SUV, supplementing Regensburg output, from next August.
VDL has built Mini hatchback/convertible models since 2014 and has just added the redesigned, larger Countryman.
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The X1 will be the fourth current BMW group model on the assembly lines.
Strong global demand for the X1 requires additional capacity to supplement production at [Regensburg] where the second generation of this successful model has been manufactured since July 2015, BMW said in a statement. With eight different models built on a single line, production volumes at the German factory have risen “significantly” in recent years.
“Over its lifecycle, the main volume of the X1 will still be produced in Regensburg, however,” the automaker added.
Along with Regensburg and now Born, just-auto‘s PLDB product life database lists eight additional assembly plants for the X1 worldwide, including the full manufacturing Chinese joint venture BMW Brilliance.
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By GlobalDataPeter Haug, marketing director of BMW Netherlands, said: “[Local] demand for X models has been very strong, especially for the X1. Last year, a total of 1,946 units were registered, making it the best sales result since the first generation was launched in 2009. In 2016, no less than 62.2% of all X models sold in the Netherlands (3,131 in total) were X1s, which means that one in six models sold was an X1.”
VDL Nedcar, previously a DAF small car, Volvo car, a Mitsubishi joint venture plant that also produced a Smart model for Daimler and, finally, just a Mitsubishi plant, before closure and sale to its current owners, has produced various Minis, starting with the three-door hatchback (aka hardtop in the US) in split production with BMW’s Oxford, England plant. The convertible is built only in Born. Countryman output began on 2 November 2016 and, next month, the plant will start production of the new Cooper SE Countryman ALL4, Mini’s first plug-in hybrid, and the 170kW/231hp John Cooper Works Countryman.
Of BMW’s 2016 sales tally of 2,003,359 vehicles (up 5.2% year on year), 644,922 were X models (+22.3%) or one in three.
