BMW launches first production PHEV

Fifteen years after the X5 was launched at the company’s Spartanburg facility in South Carolina, BMW has used the product to introduce its first plug-in hybrid production car.

Is JLR paving the way for a US plant?

Is JaguarLandRover (JLR) mulling an ambitious plan to build a 200,000 cars-a-year assembly plant in the US? According to the London, UK-based Sunday Times it is.

The news comes as the company officially opens a new 130,000 vehicles-a-year plant in China and later this month is set to open its much-heralded i54 engine manufacturing facility in Wolverhampton, UK.

BMW to invest US$1 billion in Spartanburg

The BMW Group is investing US$1 billion to expand capacity at its US plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina to meet demand for X models.

The company plans to make the investment by 2016 and annual production capacity by 50 per cent from 300,000 currently to 450,000 vehicles. This is according to BMW AG chairman of the board of management Norbert Reithofer at a ceremony in Spartanburg today to commemorate 20 years of BMW production in the US.

ABB wins prestige Mini robot contract

Swedish robotics vendor ABB has won a contract to supply robots and factory automation equipment to produce the next generation of Mini at the car maker’s UK plant.

The UK plant at Oxford, which is the company’s main stay for the production of the Mini range of cars, is set to install 1,000 robots as part of its next phase of expansion to raise output from 200,000 to 280,000 in the near term.