This week MINI put the fifth version of its UK-built success story, the MINI Coupé, on sale and in the same week, it came to SMMT’s central London office. Alongside the MINI Hatch, Convertible, Clubman and Countryman, the Oxford-built MINI Coupé is the first two-seater sports car in the UK brand’s long and proud history.
In the UK, MINI has three manufacturing plants at Hams Hall, Swindon and Oxford, the MINI production triangle. Together these sites produce MINI; Plant Swindon makes pressings and sub-assemblies, the Hams Hall plant produces the new MINI petrol engines and Plant Oxford is responsible for the body shell production, paint and assembly.
The MINI production triangle has received substantial investment since the brand established itself in 2000. More than £1.5 billion has been invested to ensure the long-term future of the plant, as well as jobs at its pressings plant in Swindon and engine plant at Hams Hall. The production triangle employs around over 6,000 people with production exceeding 200,000 MINIs per annum.
This high rate of manufacturing saw the two millionth MINI roll off the Oxford production line in October. Of the two million, more than 1.5 million MINIs have been exported to customers in more than 90 countries around the world, from Australia to Venezuela.
Click through for the full story about the two millionth MINI.
Click through the slideshow below to see all the photos from SMMT’s exhibition space:
