It was 1994 when the BMW Group bought the rights to the British manufacturer, changing its name in caps lock, and 2001 when the modern MINIs were introduced.
Now, 15 years later, employees at the at the Oxford Plant are looking back to when the new era started and the brand-new models rolled off the production line.
The first new MINI was built on April 26, 2001,and it came in Chili Red with contrasting white paintwork on the roof and mirror caps. Since then, the automaker delivered in excess of 2.5 million vehicles in more than 110 countries across the globe.
With a workforce that rose from 2,400 to 4,500, the Oxford facility assembles roughly 1,000 cars per day in three shifts: “Building 1,000 individually configured premium automobiles every day is a big challenge, which our employees master thanks to their exceptional level of passion and skill“, said the plant manager Frank Bachmann.
Car production in Oxford has a long historyThe classic Mini was put together here from 1959 to 1968 and the decision to assemble the modern MINI here was taken in the spring of 2000, followed by a record-speed modernization process that lasted 13 months. From the five-door hatch to the JCW models and the Clubman, they are all made there – and if a rumor that’s circulating is true, a compact sized sedan might join them soon.
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