UK: Exclusive: BMW Hams Hall Engine Plant Fully 'integrated'? Asks just-auto.com

    LONDON, Feb. 8 http://www.just-auto.com -- Following BMW's
announcement that they are to invest 1 billion pounds sterling in UK plants it
has confirmed that its new Hams Hall engine factory is fully integrated into
its production system.  just-auto.com is sceptical.
    The exclusive report at http://just-auto.com/news_detail.asp?art=23664
quotes BMW AG board member Dr. Norbert Reithofer:  "Our engine plants are not
conceived as insular units within the BMW production system but are fully
integrated within the network as a whole."
    Indeed Reithofer continues, "This year alone, some 60,000 engines will be
coming off the production line in Hams Hall and will be supplied to BMW plants
worldwide."  However, the plant can build 400,000 engines annually!
    Another example of such 'integration' involves the Cowley factory near
Oxford that will soon start building the new Mini.  That car, strangely, will
use engines produced in a joint venture with Chrysler in South America.
For the full exclusive report see:
http://just-auto.com/news_detail.asp?art=23664

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