Last Monday, the BMW Group plant in Swindon, Wiltshire celebrated the beginning of their Mini Clubman production. The German automaker invested £200 million sometime between 2005 and 2007 to link their pressing plants in Swindon, engine plants in Hams Hall near Birmingham and its assembly plant in Oxford.
The union of these BMW plants targets the production of 200,000 vehicles this year and 240,000 vehicles in the medium term. 220,000 MINI’s are also aimed to be delivered to customers all over the world.
The event was attended by the Mayor of Swindon and other prominent personalities from Swindon’s business community.
Klaus Hauser, Managing director of BMW Group Plant Swindon and the host of the event said, “With the launch of the MINI Clubman, the third MINI derivative, we are expecting new production and sales records for MINI this year which is great news for Swindon and the UK automotive industry. The new model is another milestone for the plant and we are confident that it will offer an exciting next chapter in the MINI success story. We look forward to our employees continuing to make a vital contribution to the development of a great British brand – the MINI.”
The celebration was also joined by 10 plant employees who are to receive their long service awards on the said event. Hauser considered the 325 years of the plant an achievement and having such hardworking employees, the plant sees a more productive future.
“This is a tremendous achievement and we are delighted they were able to join us. They have seen many changes over the years. The plant, in which they have spent so much of their lives, now looks forward to a robust and positive future.”
To break the 200,000 MINI’s produced in 2005 BMW invested £100 million to the Oxford plant, £60 million for MINI body pressings and sub-assembly technologies to the Swindon plant, £30 million for new and advanced petrol engines at the Hams Hall.
With the added investment at the Swindon Plant resulting to increased capacity and flexibility will make the plant accountable for 90 percent of the pressings and 80 percent of the body-shell sub-assembly work for the MINI. The plant now uses extensive modernization program and the most advanced technology in seam production.
The MINI Clubman production started after a year the MINI hatch was introduced to the market. The Clubman’s closest competitors are the Honda Fit (which can be equipped with a Honda car cover), VW rabbit and the Nissan Versa. BMW’s MINI series was launched in 2001 and now, almost one million MINI’s have been manufactured and sold. 75 percent of the production accounts for MINI’s exported to automotive markets all over the world.
Having a remarkable reputation on its home market, the Honda Civic Type-R is now being exported to Australia.
The first shipment of Swindon- built Civic Type Rs arrived in Melbourne earlier this month. And now ready to be delivered to dealers, the Civic Type-R will be in the hands of the Australians at the price of a remarkably sharp $A39, 990 for the privilege starting Monday.
Equipped with a rigid Honda throttle body, the Civic comes with a high-revving, naturally aspirated, 2-litre i-VTEC engine that is capable of pumping out 148kW and 193Nm. As a result, it will sprint to 100kmh in just 6.6 seconds, but despite being so wildly quick, it manages 9.3 liters per 100km.
Australians are lucky because they live in the only country outside Europe to get the acclaimed ‘hot hatch’, which sales is expected to reach 1200 units there per year.
Based in Swindon, Honda of the UK Manufacturing (HUM), is the only Honda production facility to build the Civic Type R. Twelve thousand five hundred (12,500) will be built in the area between now and April 2008.
When asked about the possibility of a Type R Civic for the New Zealand market, Honda New Zealand has always said that it has no plans of bringing the car in.
The Civic Type R rides on 18-inch alloy wheels along with 225/40 R18 tires, and stops with 300mm front and 260mm rear brake discs. It has a six-speed manual gearbox, with no automatic, and firm MacPherson strut-style front suspension and torsion beam rear suspension, but the latter of which is actually not as advanced as the fully-independent rear suspension found on New Zealand Civic sedans.
As to the interior, the Civic has a dash design similar to Civic found in New Zealand. When cornering, its body-hugging alcantara racing-style bucket seats keep the driver firmly planted.
Regarding safety features, the Civic Type R has front, side and curtain airbags, vehicle stability assist (VSA), ABS brakes with electronic brake force distribution and an advanced compatibility engineering (ACE) body structure. For additional security of the car, an anti-theft immobilizer is equipped.
Other features include automatic rain- sensing windscreen wipers, auto on/ off headlights, an MP3 and WMA- compatible CD player, multi- function trip computer, cruise control, front fog lights, dual-zone climate control, and a leather-bound tilt and telescopic-adjustable steering wheel.
Honda expects to sell 100 Civic Type Rs per month in Australia. The Swindon Type R is not being sold in Japan either. The only Type R Civic that the public would be able to source as a Japanese used import will be the sedan version.
BMW Group’s Hams Hall Plant, which is set to make a record number for BMW and Mini, earlier built its one millionth engine since production started in January 2001. The 2.0-litre petrol engine was ordered by a customer for a new version of the BMW 1 Series.
Producing the one millionth engine etches a key milestone in the German automaker’s plant development. It underlines the increasing vitality in the global auto production network of BMW as the automaker endeavors to become the cream-of-the-crop in the production of the four-cylinder engines. These engines, complemented by the BMW cold air intake, are integrated to the automaker’s product lines.
Within hours in the assembly line, the built-to-order engine was shipped to the German automaker’s assembly plant in Leipzig, Germany. The latter is one of six assembly plants of the automaker in five different countries to which the UK plant supplies engines.
“Each and every one of the associates in our thousand-strong workforce at Hams Hall is extremely proud of having contributed to this significant achievement. Following last year’s record output of 217,000 engines, annual production this year is scheduled to go well above 300,000 engines. The plant is going from strength to strength and we are looking forward to building many more engines for both BMW and MINI in the years ahead,” commented Robert Bolam, who took over as plant director at Hams Hall at the beginning of the year.
The one millionth engine assembled at the Hams Hall plant made for a BMW 120i features the BMW High Precision Injection and this is a second-generation direct petrol injection technology that showcases the German automaker’s Efficient Dynamics concept to deliver enhanced power and performance coupled with a significant reduction in fuel consumption and emissions. The fuel consumption of the new Hams Hall-powered BMW120i is approximately 15 percent less than that of the previous model, notwithstanding an eight percent increase in output.
In 2001, during its first year of production, the Hams Hall plant, subsequent to an initial investment of £400 million and with a workforce of 450 associates, manufactured and delivered 70,000 engines. This year, production will easily exceed 300,000 engines with a workforce that now numbers just over 1,000 associates. In the past six months alone, 250 new associates have been taken on to deal with the growing demands resulting from the launch of the highly successful second-generation MINI under BMW Group ownership.
In late 2001, with the launch of the new MINI, the MINI Production Triangle was formed comprising the UK plants at Oxford, Hams Hall and Swindon, with Hams Hall supplying all petrol engines and Swindon the pressings and sub-assemblies to Plant Oxford. Robert Bolam, the Hams Hall’s plant director, has this to say: “The new generation of particularly fuel-efficient engines being built at Hams Hall for BMW and MINI, our continuing investment in the development of our highly efficient production facilities and the commitment of our excellent workforce are factors that give us a really powerful springboard for continued success in the future.”
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