BMW launched its third-generation Mini in Oxford on 18 November, the 107th anniversary of original Mini designer Sir Alec Issigonis’s birthday. At the launch, the OEM pledged that the Cowley plant, itself 100 years old this year, would remain at the heart of Mini.
The company is investing £750m (US$1,200m) between 2012 and 2015 in the Mini production triangle of Oxford, Hams Hall (engines) and Swindon (body pressings).
“That level of investment is equivalent to building a new plant,” said Harald Krueger, BMW Group’s Board Member for Production. Part of that investment sees the number of robots in body assembly double to 1,000, mostly driven by the ergonomics of assembly – taking away awkward and heavy operations from assembly line workers, Krueger told Automotive World.
The third-generation Mini looks like the current Mini, only bigger; it’s 3,821mm long, 1,727mm wide and 1,414mm tall. This makes it 98mm longer, 44mm wider and 7mm taller than its predecessor. Designer Anders Warming said that designing the new Mini was more challenging than designing other cars because of its heritage. “We have to get the balance right between heritage and innovation,” he said.
Much of the innovation comes from the all-new architecture on which the Mini (and future small BMWs) is based. This has allowed the use of not only new powertrains including three-cylinder diesel and gasoline units, but also technology such as head-up displays previously only available on high-end models like the BMW 7 Series.
It also means a more rigid body that is up to 45kg lighter than the current model, the use of more advanced materials including lightweight steel and greater functionality with improved satnav and connectivity.
The car is also easier to assemble and BMW has taken the opportunity to reorganise part of the assembly line with, for example, cockpit pre-assembly now very close to the main assembly line. Laser welding for the doors has been introduced at the Swindon pressing plant; this, said Krueger, “is a big step forward.”
The new car is also a major boost to the UK supplier industry, with a 50% increase in parts sourced from the UK; these include bumpers, headliners, cockpit, seats and instrument panel components.
The flexibility of the architecture allows for the production of vehicles from 3.8-4.5m long. “We could do eight to ten Minis from this architecture,” said Krueger. “It’s always good to have more ideas than models.” There are seven body styles in the current line-up.
While BMW is preparing for growth – it has set a group target of 2 million sales by 2016 – Plant Oxford will be restricted to its 260,000 capacity by the paint shop. The number of vehicles it can process has trebled to 900 a day over the past decade.
“The paint shop limits our capacity and its life cycle isn’t yet at the right time for us to make a change,” said Krueger. The biggest challenges to building a new paint shop are “space and technology constraints,” he said, explaining that a new paint shop would have to be built while the existing one continues in full operation.
Of the 301,000 Minis sold last year, Cowley built 207,000 with the balance coming from Magna Steyr in Austria, where the Paceman and Countryman are built. BMW has already announced that it will add Mini capacity at the NedCar facility at Born in The Netherlands in the second half of 2014. Mitsubishi Motors sold its share in NedCar to VDL Groep for a token €1 and the facility, renamed VDL NedCar, is now an independent vehicle assembler. Which Mini model will be built there has still not been decided, according to BMW Group board members at the Mini’s unveiling.
Although Mini accounts for one-in-six BMW Group sales – closer to one-in-five in the US, its largest market with sales last year of 60,000 – chasing volume isn’t important, said Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW’s Member of the Board of Management with responsibility for Mini, Rolls-Royce, Motorrad and Aftersales.
“We have to keep Mini premium – it’s not a question of volume,” he told Automotive World. “We’re not in this business to push metal, we’re in it to make money. If you push volume you hurt your own customers. If you do the right thing by the brand, the natural volume will follow. 20,000 sales more or less is not important, so long as the brand value stays.”
Asked about the design of the third-generation Mini, Schwarzenbauer, who joined the BMW Group in April from Audi, said he thought the design team had done an excellent job. “How far can you stretch an iconic design? This is much more modern, but is it enough change? I think so.
“I can tell you we had much more discussion about Mini design internally than with other designs. There were a lot of fights. But you cannot democratise advertising or car design – someone has to make a decision.”
That decision has met with all-round approval, judging by the reaction at the unveiling. The test will come when the new Mini goes on sale in the spring of 2014.
Tony Lewis
About the author: Tony Lewis is a freelance motoring journalist who has covered the global automotive industry for over 20 years for publications in Europe and the US
