The long-term expansion of the BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA) Joint Venture has achieved a significant milestone.
The company approved the sale of a 25 percent shareholding in BBA to the BMW Group. As announced on the 15th anniversary of BBA, the BMW Group intends to increase its stake in BBA from 50 percent to 75 percent and both partners signed a corresponding agreement. As part of the agreement the contractual term of the joint venture, which would currently expire in 2028, is to be extended to 2040. The transaction remains subject to the approval of the relevant authorities. The deal is scheduled to close in 2022 at the latest when the joint venture requirement for auto manufacturing in China will be lifted.
It is the BMW Group’s goal to further strengthen its long-term cooperation with CBA, increase production capacity in Shenyang and continue to expand the localization of additional models including new energy vehicles (NEVs). Therefore, an investment of more than three billion euros in new and existing plant structures in Shenyang over the coming years was announced recently. With its highly flexible production system, the new plant in Tiexi will be able to build vehicles with fully electric, partially electric and conventional drivetrains on a single production line. Further extensive remodelling and expansion measures will also be carried out at the neighbouring plant in Dadong. Its structure will be expanded to accommodate future BMW model variants and the expected increase in customer demand. As a result, from the early 2020s the total annual production capacity of BMW automobiles at the BBA plants will gradually increase to 650,000 units, creating 5,000 new jobs.
