Production
workers at VDL Nedcar’s facility are currently on summer shutdown, but when
they return manufacture of the Mini Hatch will begin.
VDL Nedcar in will re-open the factory in Born in mid-July.
A VDL spokesperson said: “Mini
production hasn't started just yet. We cannot communicate about production
volumes for this year.”
However, it is known that
the new Mini Hatch will be built at VDL Nedcar, as well as Plant Oxford in the
UK, from the second half of 2014. Production volumes depend on demand from
various markets and proportions will be flexible due to product launches and ramp
up.
A spokesperson for BMW in
the UK said: “In 2014 we will reach a five-digit production number of Mini cars
at the VDL Nedcar plant.
Production of the new
generation Mini Hatch at Oxford started in March this year. The new Hatch is
manufactured in a new body-in-white facility constructed at Plant Oxford as a
result of BMW Group’s £750 million UK investment package over the last few
years.
The final assembly hall at
Plant Oxford handles both the new third-generation model and models built on
previous generation platforms, namely Mini Roadster, Convertible and Clubman.
However, officials at Plant
Oxford refused to disclose which companies supplied manufacturing equipment for
the new body-in-white shop, particularly the framing line and robots.
In February this year, the
VDL Group and BMW Group jointly announced (as reported here) that the model to
be built in Born starting summer 2014 would be the new Mini Hatch.
Harald Krüger and Klaus
Draeger, BMW Group board members from Munich, visited the plant. They were
given a tour of the completely redesigned car manufacturing plant with its automated
production lines (below).
VDL Group president Wim van
der Leegte said then that he was pleased that the Mini model could finally be
announced. He expressed his pride of VDL Nedcar director Joost Govaarts and his
people, who carried out the reconstruction of the plant “entirely on schedule”.
Following the acquisition
of Nedcar by VDL Group at the end of 2012, the redesign of the Born plant for
the production of Mini model under contract to BMW Group began on 1 January
2013. VDL Nedcar employees worked on the reconstruction alongside various
suppliers for over a year: from structural changes to logistical changes and
the installation of production facilities.
It was stated then that “At
present, more than half of the 1,500 VDL Nedcar employees are back at work. The
remaining employees will gradually rejoin them during the course of this year.”
Meanwhile, the new Mini
Hatch looks set to broaden its appeal with the introduction of another diesel
engine: the Mini Cooper SD three-door Hatch.
BMW claims sales of the new
Mini Hatch have been a “runaway success”, adding that as of June 2014, Mini UK
has the strongest forward order bank for Hatch since the brand was relaunched
in 2001.
In total there are now six
power units available for the three-door Hatch in the UK, including three
petrol and three diesel engines - all of which were newly developed.
The Mini Cooper SD three-door
Hatch is powered by the 2-litre four-cylinder BMW engine generating a peak
torque output of 360Nm at 1500rev/min. It also boasts a power output of 170 hp.
New Mini TwinPower Turbo
Technology has a turbocharging system with variable turbine geometry and common
rail injection with magnet valve injectors operating at a maximum pressure of
2,000bar. There is an optionally-available six-speed automatic transmission.
The car offers CO2
emissions of 109 grams per kilometre (automatic: 107g/km, EU test cycle
figures, dependent on tyre selection).
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