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According to foreign media reports, BMW Group will stop producing electric MINI models at its Oxford plant in the UK and replace them with BMW Group and Great Wall Motor joint venture Beam cars. Foreign media pointed out that the Oxford factory produces electric vehicles and fuel vehicles on the same production line at the same time, resulting in low operating efficiency, so it decided to focus on manufacturing petrol-powered MINI models from next year. According to the plan, in addition to the pure electric MINI ACEMAN will be produced in China, MINI's other pure electric version of MINI COUNTRYMAN will be produced at the Leipzig plant in Germany.

It is understood that MINI was originally a car manufacturer from Britain, Oxford factory can be said to be the home of MINI brand, even after BMW acquired the brand in 1994, part of the production will be transferred to Europe and Asia, but the factory has produced MINI models for more than 60 years. In the past few decades, the British did not stop placing high hopes on this brand until the wave of new energy vehicles swept the world, BMW accelerated to promote full electrification, and the MINI brand was also involved. According to the plan, MINI brand will launch the last fuel model in 2025, after which it will focus entirely on pure electric models. By 2027, pure electric cars will account for at least 50% of MINI models sold. By 2030, all MINI models will be fully electric, and MINI will become BMW's first fully electric brand.

BMW China responded by saying that the Oxford plant in the UK would suspend production of electric models, but would not stop producing MINI models, while clarifying that beam cars working with Great Wall Motors would produce pure electric MINI. MINI head Stefanie Wurst said in an interview with foreign media that the Oxford plant in the UK was not ready for electric vehicle production, and that the next generation of pure electric car MINI Aceman would be produced in China as part of a joint venture between Great Wall Motor and the group.

On July 27,2022, MINI Concept Aceman concept car under MINI brand was officially unveiled. As a brand-new model of MINI family, the new car is positioned as a cross-border small SUV, filling the market gap between MINI three-door version and MINI COUNTRYMAN.

In terms of appearance, the new car adopts a brand-new design language, the classic circular headlight group becomes polygonal design, the front grille is closed design and equipped with LED "screen" inside, and there are vertical red decorations on both sides of the front surround. The overall design shows a wild atmosphere. On the side of the body, the new car adopts a smoother line design, and the front and rear wings cooperate with the black wheel eyebrows to show the visual effect of wide body. At the rear of the car, the taillights of the new car adopt blackened lampshades, the interior is equipped with pixel LED lamp groups, and the shapes on both sides form abstract British rice flags. In addition, the rear surround of the new car also adopts a design different from the color of the car body, both sides are also equipped with red decorative panels to echo the front part, and the middle of the rear surround is equipped with a design similar to the rear guard plate, so that the overall collocation makes the new car look thicker.

On July 10,2018, there were two major events in the automobile circle: 1. The joint venture between Great Wall Motor and BMW Group was finalized, and the joint venture company Beam Automobile will be settled in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, with 50:50 shares held by both Chinese and foreign parties;2. Tesla announced that the new factory will be settled in Shanghai Lingang, with an annual production capacity of 500,000 pure electric vehicles.

Great Wall Motor, as the only Chinese car company in the two major events, is much hotter than Tesla. On the same day, witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, BMW Group signed a joint venture agreement with Great Wall Motor to establish a new joint venture in China to produce MINI brand electric vehicles.

According to the data, Beam Automobile Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as "Beam Automobile") was established on December 27,2019, with registered address of Zhangjiagang Economic and Technological Development Zone, Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province. The legal representative is Zhao Guoqing, Deputy General Manager and Vice Chairman of Great Wall Motor, with registered capital of RMB 1.7 billion Yuan and business term from December 27,2019 to December 26,2034. Equity penetration shows that Great Wall Motor Co., Ltd. and BMW (Netherlands) Holding Company respectively hold 50% of the joint venture company, of which BMW (Netherlands) Holding Company is the actual controller.

Beam Automobile is the first joint venture project of Great Wall Motor and the first pure electric vehicle joint venture project of German BMW in the world. For the first time, the cooperation mode of both parties adopts the mode of "joint venture without joint venture", that is, joint research and development and production of automobiles, but the products will enter BMW Group and Great Wall Motor's respective service networks for sales according to brands.

Harald Krüger, Chairman of BMW Group, said: "This strategic partnership is a clear win-win option for BMW Group and Great Wall Motor, which will enable us to contribute to China's ambitious plan to vigorously develop new energy vehicles and reduce traffic emissions." In contrast, Wei Jianjun, chairman of the Great Wall Motor, expressed some helplessness. He said frankly: "Before the Great Wall, it was not that we did not want to have a joint venture, but it was not our turn to have a joint venture." Great Wall and BMW are in a free relationship. They started discussing cooperation two years ago. Signing a contract is a real engagement."

Great wall and bmw joint venture beam car is to take what each needs, but great wall needs each other more than bmw. According to the data, in the first three quarters of 2022, the accumulated sales volume of Great Wall Motors was 802,300 vehicles, down 9.25% year-on-year, among which Haval sold 543,900 vehicles, down 16.42% year-on-year, Wei brand sold 30,500 vehicles, down 15.75% year-on-year, Euler sold 84,700 vehicles, down 0.01% year-on-year, and tank brand sold 89,200 vehicles, up 69.65% year-on-year. On the whole, the performance of Great Wall Motor is difficult to say considerable, Haval decline is much higher than other brands, and Wei brand to new energy turn, at present little effect.

Under the new policy of double points, Great Wall Motor has to marry Yujie in the same province, but no matter the size or brand can not meet the demand, and the joint venture project with BMW, mainly electric vehicles, can make Great Wall fundamentally get rid of the anxiety of points, but also can realize the grand goal of Great Wall Motor. On June 28,2021, Great Wall Motor released the "2025 Strategy", aiming to achieve annual sales of more than 4 million vehicles by 2025, 80% of which are new energy.

However, industry insiders believe that the marriage between Great Wall and BMW is not simply for pure electric vehicles, but hope to learn from BMW, including not limited to new energy, traditional internal combustion engine, chassis and powertrain, automatic driving and intelligence, technology and standards, testing and calibration, development process and management, international market operation...

It should be noted that Beam Car is only a company name, and the brand name is temporarily unknown. As mentioned above, the cooperation mode between Great Wall and BMW adopts the mode of "joint venture but not joint venture" for the first time, that is, joint research and development and production of automobiles, and the products will be sold in the service networks of BMW Group and Great Wall Motor respectively according to brands. That is to say, the beam car does not need to build sales channels, and related products launched in the future will be sold in Great Wall and BMW stores.

However, the progress of beam cars is particularly slow, with smart, the first all-electric model, already in mass production in China. On December 27,2019, Geely Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Mercedes-Benz Co., Ltd. jointly funded the establishment of Smart Motor Automobile Co., Ltd., with a registered capital of RMB 5.4 billion yuan, each holding 50% shares. The shareholders will jointly operate and promote the transformation of the smart brand on a global scale, committed to building smart into a high-end electric smart car brand, officials said. On June 6,2022, Smart Spirit #1 was officially launched. The new car was built based on Geely's vast SEA architecture. Mercedes-Benz Design Department was responsible for modeling design, and Geely was responsible for vehicle R & D and manufacturing. It was positioned as a pure electric small SUV with a price of 181,600 - 226,600 yuan.

As a global leader in the automotive industry, the best of the gasoline era must not want to be abandoned in the era of automobile electrification, but the price of becoming a leader again will be huge. For BMW, there is still a long way to go to maintain its position as a pioneer in the industry and lay a territory in China's fiercely competitive electric market. BMW plans to launch 25 new energy models by 2023, including 12 plug-in hybrids and 13 pure electric models, with a product matrix covering BMW, MINI and BMW M series.

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