BMWReportedly Looking To Buy Honda’s UK Factory
There’s a lot of Honda bike dealers across the world, with plenty of manufacturing factories to ensure that demands are met. One of the company’s currently operating factories, in Swindon, the UK, is scheduled to close its doors once the production of its primary output ends.
The Honda factory doesn’t produce bikes for Honda bike dealers, but it is a point of interest for another major manufacturer, BMW. Currently, the factory is scheduled to close by 2021, once the manufacturer ceases production of the current iteration of the Honda Civic.
As for Bavarian Motor Works, the company’s seeing a booming demand for some of its more popular products in the UK, including the X1 SUV, among others, and, as a result, are looking to gain more production capacity in the country. According to a local publication, the company has been considering the Honda plant in Swindon as their latest point of interest.
The German automaker has good reason to expand operations in the UK, one of which include the fact that the country already has a highly integrated production system, which would be very useful for the manufacturer.
BMW is responsible for the production of Minis, using their UKL1 transverse-engine platform as basis, at Oxford, utilizing engines made at their Hams Hall plant near Birmingham, with the vehicle’s body panels made at the pressing plant near Swindon.
Currently, BMW also has the VDL Nedcar factory in the Netherlands contracted for the production of additional Minis. According to the factory, their output shot up from 1.69 million cars in 2017, up to more than 2 million thanks to the launch of the BMW X1, which utilizes the same architecture as the Minis.
The VDL company website, notably, states that they’re expecting less orders from BMW in 2020, and, potentially, in the future. The company’s even gone so far as to cut down its flexible workforce by more than 1,000 employees.
Demand for the X1 is reportedly really high, account for at least 13% of BMW’s global sales. The manufacturer has been working on moving production to the UK, acquiring expansion permission for their Swindon facility, among other developments.
The company’s tight-lipped, however, only stating that they’re doing some reorganisation, with Mini Oxford set to come soon.
