{"id":47863,"date":"2023-04-20T12:03:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47863"},"modified":"2023-04-20T12:03:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:03:41","slug":"mini-said-consider-building-electric-crossover-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47863","title":{"rendered":"Mini Said To Consider Building Electric Crossover In North America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mini could build electric vehicles in North America in the second half of the decade as the BMW Group-owned brand seeks to increase the competitiveness of its models in the US.<\/p>\n

According to sources briefed on the plans cited by Automotive News<\/em>, a Mini electric crossover could go into production at BMW’s central Mexico plant in the second half of the decade. The factory in San Luis Potosi currently makes the BMW 2 Series and 3 Series sedans, along with the iX3 electric SUV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the sources said the new Mini model will share the same platform as the future 3 Series EV and its crossover sibling, a strong suggestion that Mini will get access to the\u00a0Neue Klasse<\/a>\u00a0EV architecture. For now, it’s unclear whether Mini has already made the decision to build the electric crossover in Mexico or not; a company spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n

If the report is accurate, that would help Mini further diversify beyond its plant in Oxford, England. The new Mini Countryman \u2013 including its all-electric variant<\/a> \u2013 is due to begin production in Germany in November 2023, while Mini will also start making EVs in China later in the year as part of a joint venture with Great Wall Motor.<\/p>\n

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\"2024 <\/source><\/source><\/picture> <\/a> <\/p>\n

17<\/span> Photos<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The British brand will build the next-generation Cooper Electric<\/a> and a crossover based on the Aceman Concept<\/a> in China.<\/p>\n

Obviously, having a model built in North America will allow Mini to claim up to $7,500 in US federal tax credits and therefore lower the vehicle’s starting price.\u00a0Manufacturing a crossover in Mexico would also make even more economic sense for the brand as Mini faces a 27.5 percent tariff on every vehicle it might want to import from China.<\/p>\n

Building a crossover in Mexico would also be in tune with Mini’s recent strategy to pivot to larger, crossover-type vehicles to increase sales in the US, where its lineup of small cars hasn’t broken any sales records in recent years.<\/p>\n

In addition, North American production would allow Mini<\/a> dealers to meet US demand more efficiently. Finally, building a new model in Mexico would help parent company BMW Group increase utilization at its underemployed factory in San Luis Potosi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plant, which opened in 2019, operates at just 32 percent utilization, according to AutoForecast Solutions<\/em>, compared to 99 percent capacity for BMW Group’s other North American factory in Greer, South Carolina.\u00a0The German automaker announced in February an\u00a0$878 million investment to build Neue Klasse EVs and battery packs in San Luis Potosi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Mini could build electric vehicles in North America in the second half of the decade as the BMW Group-owned brand seeks to increase the competitiveness of its models in the US. According to sources briefed on the plans cited by Automotive News, a Mini electric crossover could go into production at BMW’s central Mexico plant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}