BMW Group today announced that it will invest more than £600 million to expand Mini production in the UK: headquartered in 2026 The plant in Oxford will master the assembly of the new generation Mini Cooper electric hatchbacks and the related Aceman crossover.
At the beginning of September, the British Mini brand, owned by the BMW Group, introduced new generations of the Cooper hatchback and the Countryman crossover. All versions of the new Countryman will be produced at the BMW plant in Leipzig, Germany, along with the platform-based BMW X1. With the new Mini Cooper the situation turned out to be much more complicated.
To begin with, the Cooper name now refers to all hatchbacks, and not to individual modifications, as it was before, while “hydrocarbon” and electric hatchbacks have different platforms. The internal combustion engine versions are essentially the old UKL1 platform in a new body; such cars will continue to be assembled in Oxford, England. The new generation electric Minis were developed on a new platform within the framework of a joint venture between the BMW Group and Great Wall Motor (GWM) founded in 2019 in China — it is called Spotlight Automotive, its plant is located in the Zhangjiagang district of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, this is where the new electric Minis will be registered primarily to enter the global market in 2024.
New Mini Cooper 1/3 
New Mini Cooper 2/3 
New Mini Cooper 3/3
Today it turned out that the Zhangjiagang plant will be the only assembly location for the new electric Minis only until 2026 inclusive, then their production will be established at the home plant in Oxford along with the younger Aceman crossover, which is scheduled to premiere in April this year. The Zhangjiagang plant will continue to assemble Minis after 2026, but they will be intended mainly for the Chinese market, while the Oxford plant will produce all versions of Mini hatchbacks for all other markets, the convertible will also be registered here (convertibles of the outgoing generation are assembled on a contract basis by the Dutch VDL Nedcar plant).
Mini plant in Oxford
Thus, the BMW Group wants to maximally consolidate the production of the main Mini family in Oxford, for which the capacity of the plant, which, by the way, celebrated its 110th anniversary this year, needs to be increased to 200,000 cars per year, installed a battery installation line, and carried out transformations in the field of logistics. There are also plans to upgrade the forge shop at the Swindon plant, which produces a variety of components, to make bodies for the new Minis — part of a new tranche of investment of more than £600 million. In total, the German company's investment in British Mini plants since the early 2000s should exceed £3 billion, but the fate of the Hams Hall engine plant has not yet been decided, because in 2030 the Mini brand plans to completely switch to electric vehicles.
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Mini plant in Oxford
The development of Mini production sites in the UK is taking place with fairly generous financial and administrative support from the British government . Unions at factories in Oxford and Swindon can rest assured about the future of their workers — previously they were very nervous that China was taking away their jobs and could completely deprive them of them in the future.
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