BMW is all set to spend £250m in its three UK MINI plants by the end of 2015, as MINI made clear that it will be launching new models in the near-term, taking the marque products line-up to 10 different models. As BMW invests more money, it will secure 5,500 jobs across its main Oxford plant. The new announcement made by the German automaker is in addition to the £500m investment that the company announced in 2011. Since 2000, BMW has invested £1.75bn in UK production.

“BMW Group has even greater plans for the future development of the brand. Plant Oxford has played a major role in this with cars being exported to over 100 countries around the world. This additional investment is great news for all our employees in the UK and shows the BMW Group’s commitment to Britain as a vital manufacturing base for us,” said Harald Krueger —member of the board of management at the BMW Group.

As MINI has decided to expand production, the firm seeks production partners overseas, and according to Kruger “Our preferred option is to establish a contract manufacturer as a satellite production as close to our UK operations as possible, at the Nedcar plant in the Netherlands, with whom BMW is in discussions“. The Nedcar plant recently ended the production for Mitsubishi cars and the plant could be awarded the agreement to produce the Countryman from Magna. If this happens, the Paceman, and a Countryman variant, would also be developed at Nedcar.

via Autocar