[dark.knight]

Most Minis (70%) are manufactured in their home plant in Britain, Oxford to be precise. With Brexit and a yet to be announced tax-regime, the company is planning on how to take its electric future forward.

BMW is deciding between its English site, a plant in the Netherlands where it has built more of its conventional line-up in recent years, and its Germany plants at Leipzig and Regensburg for the new low-emissions variant. The firm's board member for sales told Reuters that the electric Mini investment, likely to be worth tens of millions of pounds, would come in the next three months and the board was currently considering a number of factors including Brexit.

Also, with BMW manufacturing the Mini engines and with a possible hurdle in free-movement of chassis and/or fully assembled cars within the EU the wait is on to understand how the new tax structure will work.

"If you made the motor in a German plant and you then assembled the car in a British plant, and you took the cars back to the German market, then the duty that you would pay would be reclaimed," he said, in an example of the options companies are examining to plan for any duties or tariffs. The automaker is also looking into where the uptake of greener models is strongest and where the best supply chains are, he said. Britain could approve its first major electric battery hub in the next few weeks after officials in central England submitted proposals to ministers in May.

Looking forward to a whisper-quiet, torque-crazy eco-kart by Mini.. the best will get even better.

Link : http://www.autoblog.com/2017/07/01/m...ound-ab-tile-7