BMW Brilliance second plant to make new 5-Series

Shanghai, September 5 (Gasgoo.com) BMW Brilliance Auto, German luxury carmaker BMW's joint venture with Brilliance China Auto, will build a second plant in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, to meet growing demand in China, and the new facility is expected to make all-new BMW 5-Series models first, xinhuanet.com said yesterday.

At a ceremony marking the joint venture's fifth anniversary and the rolling-off-line of its 100,000th vehicle on Thursday, Liu Guoqiang, vice-governor of Liaoning province, said that the new plant will double BMW Brilliance's annual production capacity to 80,000 cars. Construction of the new factory is to kick off in October, and the facility will start operation by the end of 2009, with the new-generation BMW 5-Series (code-named BMW F18) as the first models to be made there.

BMW Brilliance Auto chief executive officer Alfred Rupp confirmed that expansion work was planned, without commenting on the final capacity for the factory. A second plant was also under discussion, he said. The venture said in March that it was expanding its annual capacity to 41,000 vehicles this year from 30,000 through plant upgrades and other measures. BMW Brilliance, which yesterday had its 100,000th car coming off line, makes 17 variants in total of BMW's 3-Series and 5-Series models.

Last year, BMW brand sales in mainland China exceeded 49,300 units, and grew by a quarter year-on-year to 28,766 cars in the first half this year, including 16,196 units of the 3-Series and 5-Series sedans from the joint venture. The number of BMW dealers in China will rise to 120 by the end of this year from 90 at the end of last year.

The BMW 5 series currently on sale in China