MINI to bring J01 all new electric hatch to the Oxford Plant for global export in 2027

Yes but there are income limitations and 1 used EV credit every 3 years, and a "private party used market to tank" opportunity!

An enterprising individual could swindle a private party under the guise of used EV tax credit (i.e. single filer income $75,000+) and see if there is an arbitrage opportunity with a trade in + new EV purchase for another $7,500 tax credit.

 

"BMW also said Chinese renewable energy group Envision's Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) will build a new battery cell plant in South Carolina with an annual capacity of up to 30 GWh to supply the automaker."

Blah. Former Nissan LEAF lizard battery (Japanese firm sold to China in 2017) manufacturer.

 

Would it be too embarassing for US MINI dealers to continue selling the 114-mile Oxford SE in 2024, 2025, and 2026 while the rest of the world gets the smaller-on-the-outside, bigger-on-the-inside, longer-range, more-powerful, Zhangjiagang SE?

 

Wasn't Brexit such a fantastic idea! Looks at all the benefits that it has brought!

 

Will this 4 year flip-flop cow-poop ever stop? It is really not encouraging for foreign investors. No wonder China is outperforming just about everyone else. There is far more stability there, a more favourable business environment.
Slightly more on topic, the Chinese market for EVs is larger than the rest of the world put together. Hmmm where would you most want to build EVs?

 

There was nothing wrong with the battery itself. The issue was that Nissan failed to cool it. BMW hopefully won’t make that same mistake.


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Probably not. This is the price to be paid for a regularly elected government. I’d rather have that than single party rule, with one person leading the nation for decades on end.

But yeah, the IRA worked to create a lot of promises. I’d the GOP does reverse the bill, I suspect few, if any, of those promises will be seen through.


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LMO chemistry was prone to higher degradation and to this day, Nissan still does not actively liquid cool the LEAF battery to keep the MSRP down.

 

The evidence I have seen indicates that the lack of cooling - not the chemistry- is primarily responsible for degradation. For example, batteries in mild climates (like the PNW) seem to show very little degradation.

If BMW provides liquid cooling, I would have no reservations in buying an AESC battery.


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The CATL batteries MINI uses are some of the best for cold weather, I sure hope they stick with them.

 

Do you only consume US media? A country's native media is almost always heavily biased to that country...

I don't know of any other 1st world country with such polarised politics. Other democratic countries swap sides without feeling the need to undo everything they possibly can that the last administration did. Yeah, policies will change. But other countries don't regard the other side as evil incarnate whose every policy must be purged ASAP.

Yes, I will say more good things about my side than the other. But I am a fair way from considering everything the other side have done to be bad. Reversing stuff just out of spite only benefits other countries. It absolutely beggars belief that a new administration will sometimes reverse a previous one's 'demonic' policy, then revive it as their own great one. WTAF America?

 

Fair. I painted the picture as far too black and white. The US and PRC are at two very different extremes.

I agree that reversing policies just for spite is madness. It is the world in which I live though and directly affects my life. It seems every two years our leaders’ direction changes.

With that said, most of the IRA-inspired promises are longer term than 2 years. For example, Micron just promised to build an “up to $100 Billion” factory basically in my back yard. I don’t take it as a given that it will actually happen though.


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A few corrections and additions to the Motoring File reporting:

J01 will be made in two versions, E (175hp) and SE (215hp).
Production starts at Oxford in November 2023.
China production will begin a few months later.
No US version of J01 exists yet.
Aceman production code is J05, not J02.
If you're in the US and want a new MINI EV, you'll get the Countryman EV in mid-2024.

 

Oxford can re-tool to make the J01 in just a few months?

Oxford can start making J01s before the factory that BMW and Great Wall Motor have been building for years?

Will the Zhangjiagang factory be shipping ready-to-assemble J01 kits to Oxford?

 

I don't know what's happening inside the factories but your questions are presupposing that Oxford is not doing anything but making the F5x cars, and that retooling for a new model requires a serious disruption in the current series production. Both assumptions could be false. Consider that BMW launched I20 in Dingolfing while building G11, G30, and G2x (some of the company's primary cash cows) there. This would be no different.

 

Yes but Plant Dingolfing built an additional two-story building (#33).

 

Yes, I was presupposing both of those things. I admit I could be wrong.

Perhaps the supply-chain from China can provide all the parts for the J01 so MINI won't have to develop a parallel UK/European supply-chain for Oxford.

Perhaps the robots of Oxford can build two completely different cars with no shared parts on the same production line.

 

Or maybe they can do what Tesla did at one point, and put robots (and the line) under tents. Not sure that'd work too well with UK weather, though. It's nothing like Southern California.

I'll be sad if the EV Countryman is the only option in the US, since reportedly it's going to be even bigger, matching the BMW iX1 in size. Maybe I can find more MINI-like models in Canada? I'll gladly roadtrip to Winnipeg for an Aceman.

 

Western companies are pulling out of China. the civil unrest and covid policy will be chinas downfall. If you are going to ship knock down kits you might as well ship directly to USA and assemble locally. That’s the entire point of it.

 

The no small MINI for the US situation is just what I know right now. It could change.

Canada won't help because it shares models with the US (same crash standards).