BMW will form a joint venture with Great Wall to produce the MINI electric in China

BMW Group is looking for a partner in China to produce and distribute the MINI electric. The Bavarian manufacturer is in talks with Great Wall Motor to set up a joint venture that will produce future MINI-brand vehicles powered by electric batteries. China is currently the world’s leading market for electric vehicles, which is why BMW considers it essential for its business to establish a production centre for the brand’s future electric models.

To this end, BMW Group is holding advanced negotiations with Great Wall Motor, one of China’s major automotive corporations, with which it has already signed a letter of intent to produce the future electrified MINI models locally. According to the statement issued by the German manufacturer, the agreement is well advanced. What remains to be agreed is the creation of a joint venture to safeguard the interests of both manufacturers, the location of the production centre and the level of investment each group should make in the project. For the time being, what is known is that BMW Group has no intention of developing an additional sales network for MINI in China, so in any case the existing dealerships will have to handle the distribution and sale of MINI models.

This is not the only operation BMW Group has under way in China, a market that is growing ever more attractive and influential in the automotive sector and in the global economy as a whole. BMW already had an agreement in China with Brilliance, another major Chinese car manufacturer, with which it recently renewed its agreement to produce electrified vehicles at Brilliance’s plant in Shenyang.

In China alone, BMW sold more than 560,000 vehicles in 2017, a figure higher than the brand’s combined sales in the German and American markets. Hence the interest in achieving rapid and reliable positioning in the Eastern market. And to do so, the Chinese government requires foreign firms to pay a price, meaning manufacturers must partner with local companies if they want to produce and sell cars in the country.

MINI is also already present in China, a market that has become the brand’s fourth most important. In 2017, the year in which the British-origin brand delivered no fewer than 35,000 units, which explains BMW’s interest in manufacturing the MINI electric and future electrified models in China.

For the time being, MINI production remains in the United Kingdom, although everything points to the new location not altering—if Brexit does not prevent it—the plans of the BMW Group regarding its group plant in the United Kingdom, where MINI units are produced.

Technical specifications of this car

HatchbackMINI Mini33 versions · from 28,050 €