BMW Brilliance rolls 3 millionth car off production line

SHENYANG - BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA), a joint venture between the BMW Group and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd on Thursday rolled its 3 millionth car off the production line in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province.

Milan Nedeljkovic, a member of BMW's board of management responsible for production, said BBA produced 530,000 cars in 2019, and the 3 millionth, a plug-in hybrid, demonstrated BMW's determination to dig deeper into China's new energy vehicle market.

BBA resumed production of its Tiexi and Dadong plants in Shenyang on Feb 17, with nearly 20,000 employees, including those from its suppliers who worked in the plants, returning to work as scheduled.

The local government has provided a set of supportive measures for logistics, shuttle bus service for staff and the construction of new projects to ensure work resumption went smoothly, said Franz Decker, senior vice president of technology and manufacturing of BBA.

China has become the world's largest sales market for BMW, which sold more than 720,000 cars in 2019.

The German automaker has invested over 52 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) and built two vehicle plants and one powertrain plant in Shenyang.