{"id":246308,"date":"2025-02-25T11:05:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/oxford-mini-electric-car-plan-delayed-not-cancelled-minister\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:05:04","slug":"oxford-mini-electric-car-plan-delayed-not-cancelled-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/25\/oxford-mini-electric-car-plan-delayed-not-cancelled-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Mini electric car plan &#8216;delayed, not cancelled&#8217; &#8211; minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5da0\/live\/67bd97a0-f2dc-11ef-9c1f-0b4ee7c29264.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Oxford Mini electric car plan &#8216;delayed, not cancelled&#8217; &#8211; minister\" title=\"Oxford Mini electric car plan &#8216;delayed, not cancelled&#8217; &#8211; minister\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The business and trade minister has emphasised that BMW&#8217;s decision to delay the production of two electric Mini models at its plant near Oxford was &#8220;commercial&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Sarah Jones said the company remained committed to its investment in the UK.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Responding to an urgent question in the Commons from the Conservative shadow minister, Greg Smith, she emphasised that the plan had been delayed, not cancelled.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She added that contact with BMW management was ongoing.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">BMW currently manufacturers electric Minis at a facility in China.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In September 2023, it announced plans to manufacturer them at its factory in Cowley, as well.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The plan required a \u00a3600m investment.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Over the weekend, the company confirmed that work on <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cvg5erp7zw2o\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">upgrading the factory had been suspended<!-- --><\/a> due to &#8220;multiple uncertainties facing the automotive industry&#8221;. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">It said it was &#8220;reviewing the timing for reintroducing battery-electric production in Oxford.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The BBC understands that a number of issues have fed into BMW&#8217;s decision. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">But the slower than expected pickup of electric car sales in a number of key markets is believed to be a key factor, meaning extra production is not currently needed.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Mr Smith said BMW&#8217;s decision was the &#8220;disastrous consequences of Labour&#8217;s rigid approach to Net Zero, BMW hitting the brakes on a \u00a3600m investment into Plant Oxford&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/ce3427nxddno\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The business and trade minister has emphasised that BMW&#8217;s decision to delay the production of two electric Mini models at its plant near Oxford was &#8220;commercial&#8221;. Sarah Jones said the company remained committed to its investment in the UK. Responding to an urgent question in the Commons from the Conservative shadow minister, Greg Smith, she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5da0\/live\/67bd97a0-f2dc-11ef-9c1f-0b4ee7c29264.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[1985,475,220,4178,10671,2124,34470,736],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246310,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246308\/revisions\/246310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}