After months of rumors, an unidentified government official has confirmed to Reuters that BMW will announce on Thursday plans to build a new Mexican production facility. The government official spoke on conditions of anonymity because the plans are not yet public.
BMW declined to confirm the report, but said “a decision will be made public” concerning the Mexican plant on July 3.
The new plant, which will be located either just north of Mexico City or in San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, is expected to cost BMW about $1 billion euros ($1.36 billion). The plant should be up and running by 2017 with an annual capacity of 100,000 units. Capacity will grow to 200,000 units by 2020.
BMW will likely use the plant to build its MINI line of vehicles, as well as smaller BMW-badged cars, such as the next-generation 1-Series.
The news follows closely on the heels of Daimler’s announcement that it will build its Mercedes-benz line of vehicles in Mexico with corporate partner Nissan. Volkswagen’s Audi will also soon build cars south of the boarder in order to reduce labor costs and move its supply base closer to the lucrative United States market.
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