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BMW Group South Africa has invested an additional R160m to increase production capacity of the BMW X3 at its Rosslyn plant.
In late 2015 BMW announced a R6bn local investment for production of the new generation BMW X3 at its Rosslyn plant, replacing 3-Series production that moves to Mexico but which will continue to be built at Rosslyn until around the first half of 2018.
It’s the first X product built outside of America, the result of growing demand for X models. BMW’s Spartanburg plant in the US, the biggest in the world, has had to up its X-product production capacity to 450 000 units annually to cope with demand.
The additional R160m investment will increase maximum capacity of the Rosslyn plant by almost 10%.
“Our competition is not Mercedes-Benz or VW but other BMW plants around the world. The success of any plant is flexibility.
“R160m will fine tune the production process and allow for the flexibility of between 71 000 to 76 000 units,” says Tim Abbott, CEO of BMW Group South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
The local X3 pre-series test model has already been built at Rosslyn and is currently being put through its paces.
Actual production of the X3 with its 60% local content is only expected to roll off Rosslyn’s production line in the first half of 2018.
Originally set to come off the Rosslyn production line in 2019, strengthening demand saw the X3’s local production deadline moved forward to 2018.
The new BMW X3 will be produced for the local market as well as for Europe. The X3 also comes with opportunity to export into Africa.
“One of the key areas will be Nigeria albeit not huge volumes,” Abbott tells finweek. Export of X3s into Africa is anticipated to be around 1 500 units, he says.
In 2016, 80% of the 63 000 BMW 3-Series models that were built at Rosslyn were exported.
