Major investment
At the celebration of 50 years of operation in South Africa, BMW announced that a major investment totaling 4.5 billion rand has been decided for the Rosslyn plant. Along with the investment to "electrify" the plant, it was also announced that the Rosslyn facility would become the production hub for the new hybrid X3 model.
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"From 2024, we will manufacture the plug-in hybrid X3 model for global export" said Milan Nedeljković, BMW AG Board Member for Production." This constitutes an investment of 4.2 billion rand, over 200 million euros ensuring that we will ready Plant Rosslyn for electromobility, and the investment will be accompanied by specialist training for more than 300 employees at the plant."
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Plant developments
Plant Rosslyn has produced more than 1.6 million vehicles to date and exported them to more than 40 countries worldwide, including 14 nations in Africa. Its production portfolio has included the BMW 1800 SA and BMW 2000 SA as well as the BMW 5 Series and 7 Series. For decades it was a cornerstone of BMW 3 Series production, and it has been manufacturing the BMW X3 since 2018 – the best-selling BMW. Its establishment 50 years ago marked the start of BMW’s globalisation.
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An interesting future
The investment announced today will electrify yet another site in the BMW Group production network, in line with the global BMW iFACTORY master plan for production of the future. It marks a further step in advancing the development of efficient, digitalised, resource-friendly production. Details about the new vehicle are still sparse but if the latest BMW X1 are anything to go by the new PHEV (Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicle) X3 is going to win hearts and minds across SA.
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