While it's true that BMWs Rosslyn Plant churned out over a million 3 Series in 35 years and that production has finally come to an end, it's not all doom and gloom. See, I’d argue that sedans have already lost out to SUVS as being representative of the zeitgeist. Folks want the higher ride, the go-anywhere-ability of crossovers and SUVs, so I’ll skip ahead to the good news and mention that Rosslyn is in fact gearing up to begin churning out X3s. But let’s show the 3 Series some respect shall we?
The BMW 3 series. A South African thing.
The Rosslyn plant, near Pretoria has the distinction of being the first assembly plant BMW has ever had outside Germany. Since its inception it has seen five generations, spread between 1983 and now from the E30 (Gusheshe shape) – essentially the second generation 3 Series, to the ‘Dolphin’ E36 all the way to the current instalment the sixth generation 3 Series – out since 2012. This final car alone sold 382,658 units – that means a total of one in every four of these 3 Series made globally were South African. Sadly, any 3 Series bought in South Africa beyond this production line will be an import.
Tim Abbott, CEO of BMW Group South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa had this to add: "We look back with great pride over an extraordinary career path of the production of the five generations of the BMW 3 Series at Plant Rosslyn." Truly, it has been extraordinary – the 3 Series has been a cornerstone of Mzansi automotive culture, but we are literally being moved onto bigger (and better?) things.
What comes next?
Well we’ve already mentioned it – the new BMW X3 SUV. Over R6 billion has been invested in the new production line which will at peak capacity be capable of producing 76,000 units (initially 71,000 but a further investment of R160 million increased that by almost 10%) per year – a staggering amount. Stefan Hülsenberg, Director of BMW Plant Rosslyn adds "We are confident that the new BMW X3 will be more localised than the BMW 3 Series we've produced. We are continuing to build our future together," so that's nice.
And if you’re wondering where future 3 Series will be sourced from, BMW will still be producing them from group plants in Germany, Brazil, India, Thailand, Mexico, China, Russia, Malaysia, Indonesia. Oh, and Egypt - so a LOT of places, then.
