BMW Production Halts in Multiple Plants Due to Supplier Issues, Report Says
Plants in Germany, China, and South Africa reportedly facing stoppages due to steering component supplier hiccups.
According to German magazine Focus Online and two separate reports by Reuters, BMW has run into two seemingly separate supplier issues—both concerning parts related to the luxury automaker's steering technology. BMW was forced to halt production late last week at its plant in Leipzig due to issues with a currently unnamed Italian supplier of an unnamed steering part. A little more recently, production had to be stopped at plants in Tiexi, China and Rosslyn, South Africa due to German supplier Robert Bosch not having enough steering gears.
The Leipzig plant—which is responsible for the 1 Series, 2 Series (a range that consists of the front-drive Active Tourer and rear-drive drift-fiend M2), i3, and i8—has been out of commission since Friday. For two days last week, BMW production in Munich (i.e. assembly of the 3 and 4 Series range) had to be reduced.
In a statement pertaining to the Chinese and South African outages, BMW said, "Our supplier Bosch is not currently able to provide us with a sufficient number of steering gears for the BMW 1 Series, 2 Series, 3 Series and 4 Series."
According to Focus, the snag at Leipzig is set to cost BMW "double-digit millions of Euros a day"—although Reuters points out that the claim did not come with a source.
So, if you happen to have an M2 (or seemingly any other Bimmer smaller than a 5er) on order, first of all, great choice and have fun. Secondly, you may want to give your dealer a call and see if yours has been affected by these latest production speed bumps.