Preparations are underway at Brilliance-BMW for production of the latest BMW 3 Series sedan, scheduled to begin this fall.
Following the previous 3 Series^ 30 years of production and more than 3 million vehicles sold, manufacture of the latest generation 3 Series sedan started in the beginning of 2005 in Germany. Since then production of the model has been extended to BMW^s South African plant, and small-scale assembly is also taking place in Russia.
Brilliance-BMW, established as a joint venture, is responsible for the production and sales of BMW sedans in the Greater China region. The company sold 8,661 vehicles last year and more than 7,000 in the first half of 2005. Production of the previous-generation 3 Series stopped three months ago and since then the company has been refurbishing its production line in order to upgrade its capacities for the production of the new-generation vehicles.
Fang Zhiyong, vice president of Brilliance-BMW, confirmed the new models will be priced substantially higher than the previous model, but he did not reveal pricing details.
