Brilliance BMW to budget 1 mln yuan for second plant

Shanghai, May 27 (Gasgoo.com) BMW and its Chinese partner Brilliance will pour around 1 million yuan ($143,600) to the construction of their second China plant, a project which will start later this year.

The new plant is expected to boost the joint venture’s annual capacity to 100,000 units from the current 30,000 units. "As this second plant is primarily for high-end models, we will probably invest some 1 million yuan in the project," an unnamed Brilliance executive said.

The JV automaker invested 450 million euros for its first plant, which was completed in 2003. The construction of Brilliance BMW's second plant means that more BMW cars will be locally made for the Chinese market and more BMW auto-making technologies will be introduced into China.

The plant will produce the newly launched BMW 1 series as well as the BMW 2 and 3 Series currently made in the JV. It will be located in Dadong district of northeast China's Shenyang city and is expected to start operation at the end of 2009.