BMW is hungry for more space to build more and more derivatives of its cars. Expanding its South Carolina crossover plant was step one, but the company wants another North American plant and Mexico is reportedly the front-runner in that bid.
Citing German newspaper Handelsblatt, Automotive News Europe says Mexico is a front-runner for a new BMW factory so that there could be Minis built alongside future 1 and 3-series BMWs.
BMW quickly shot down the report as speculation, but it makes sense. The next 1-series will go FWD with the Mini's UKL platform. If BMW was going to build a new factory in North America to assemble both front and rear-wheel drive platforms, then bringing its least expensive model line makes sense.
Does it matter? Consider that at one point the original Mini came from Spain, Belgium, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, Portugal and Yugoslavia, it doesn't matter one bit. The third-gen new Mini is going to be built in The Netherlands starting this year, too, because Mini makes so many of them right now that they can't churn enough out of the English factory.
And who knows, it might make them more affordable as well. Or maybe they'll feel like finally throwing in metallic paint for free or something.
Photo: Mini