• BMW produces 40,000 electric Mini cars annually at its plant outside of Oxford.
• Production will stop at the end of the current calendar year.
• BMW intends to move production of the electric cars to its Chinese joint venture.

London: According to the Times, BMW will discontinue producing its electric Minis in the UK and relocate production to plants in China, inflicting yet another setback to Britain’s ambitions for battery-powered cars.

The newspaper said on Saturday that the German automaker, which now produces 40,000 electric Mini cars annually at its plant outside of Oxford, will stop production at the end of the current calendar year. BMW intends to move production of the electric cars to its Chinese joint venture.

The Oxford plant was operating inefficiently, according to Stefanie Wurst, the new CEO of Mini, because it had to build both electric and gasoline vehicles on the same line. She claimed that in order to produce electric vehicles, the factory needed “renovation and investment,” with the existing assembly lines being taken down. She told the Times that there was still no schedule for her return to the UK.

According to the publication, BMW will continue to produce Minis with internal combustion engines in the UK into the 2030s, mostly for sale to the US, Japan, and the Middle East. The joint venture partner of BMW, Great Wall Motor Co Ltd., will produce the electric Minis at its Leipzig factory.

Britishvolt Ltd., a three-year-old company that has been trying to build an indigenous electric-vehicle battery powerhouse, is in danger as it looks for emergency capital. This week, Bloomberg revealed that the company was thinking about selling its UK location. According to the Financial Times, the company is in talks with strategic investors and needs about £200 million ($223 million) to fund itself until next summer.

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