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Sorry, but that does not ring true to me. I used to work on the assembly at a GM truck plant, and one of the amazing things was the range of different units th

Sorry, but that does not ring true to me. I used to work on the assembly at a GM truck plant, and one of the amazing things was the range of different units that came down the line. I find it hard to believe that the major car plants can no longer make assembly lines that produce more than one design on an assembly line. Also by that logic there should be no Nissan Leaf. Last but not least, if BMW waits too long they will lose customers not only to Tesla but also Porsche and Jaguar as well.

kazen44 9y ago
> I find it hard to believe that the major car plants can no longer make assembly lines that produce more than one design on an assembly line. this is not the problem i described. The problem is introducing a new model into an assembly line is a lot of work, and something which is not worth the effort if you are only going to produce a small amount of cars.
- simonbarker87 9y ago
  Absolutely not true. The Nissan Sunderland plant (which produces over 500K cars per year on two lines) produces both the Nissan Leaf and Infiniti Q30 in low volume on line two (might be line 1, not certain now). The Q30 was introduced from a slow ramp up without stopping production of the line around 18 months ago and is a low volume car.
  - mynameisvlad 9y ago
    It cost $375 million to retrofit the plant to support building the Q30: http://infinitinews.com/en-US/infiniti/usa/releases/infiniti-q30-officially-starts-production-in-sunderland-uk http://infinitinews.com/en-US/infiniti/usa/releases/infiniti... That's in line with what the parent comment said; it's not cheap at all do add a new vehicle to an existing assembly line, and it's not worth it for low volume production. Infinity also sold over 25 thousand Q(X)30s in 2017, so it's not as low volume as talked about in previous comments, either.
- rcxdude 9y ago
  As an interesting tidbit on this point, the reason robotics is favored by car manufacturers in production plants is not because it's cheaper (it's actually more expensive), but because it's more flexible, i.e. changing a line to manufacture a new line is cheaper. This runs counter to most people's intuition of robotics.
Gibbon1 9y ago
BMW is in a pickle because there is a good chance their premium pricing advantage is going to up and disappear with the shift to electrics. BMW has a customer base that loves their esthetics and brando and ignores the very high cost of ownership. Shift to electric and the esthetic and brando go out the window. See Harley Davidson.
- davewritescode 9y ago
  Ugh, Harley Davidson is a company that sells awful, antiquated products at jacked up prices. Say what you want about how much BMW charges, they make very technologically advanced cars and charge accordingly. Their major fault is they tend to use very very expensive parts and overengineer everything to a fault. This tends to make them less reliable and very expensive to repair. Case in point, the very popular and well loved BMW N54 engine used 6 piezo fuel injectors to move massive amounts of fuel. Each injector costs almost $300 at an online parts store. For comparison, a Honda Civic injector generally costs 1/5th the price. https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-207715-13538648937-genuine-bmw-part/ https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-207715-13538648937-genuin...
  - RoadKing 9y ago
    Only problem with BMW is any men I’ve ever seen riding one, looks like a fucking moron with tight pants and colorful sweater. Bunch of Fucking homos.
  - RoadKing 9y ago
    Never seen a women take of her clothes to ride bitch on a BMW.
  - Gibbon1 9y ago
    Both Harley's and BWM's have high cost of ownership and are on the lower end of the reliability curve. Yet owners buy them for the esthetics and Brando. Put an electric motor in each and the esthetics changes. That causes Brando issues because customers will grumble that the new models are 'not really' models.
- 9y ago

kazen44 9y ago

> I find it hard to believe that the major car plants can no longer make assembly lines that produce more than one design on an assembly line. this is not the problem i described. The problem is introducing a new model into an assembly line is a lot of work, and something which is not worth the effort if you are only going to produce a small amount of cars.

simonbarker87 9y ago
Absolutely not true. The Nissan Sunderland plant (which produces over 500K cars per year on two lines) produces both the Nissan Leaf and Infiniti Q30 in low volume on line two (might be line 1, not certain now). The Q30 was introduced from a slow ramp up without stopping production of the line around 18 months ago and is a low volume car.
- mynameisvlad 9y ago
  It cost $375 million to retrofit the plant to support building the Q30: http://infinitinews.com/en-US/infiniti/usa/releases/infiniti-q30-officially-starts-production-in-sunderland-uk http://infinitinews.com/en-US/infiniti/usa/releases/infiniti... That's in line with what the parent comment said; it's not cheap at all do add a new vehicle to an existing assembly line, and it's not worth it for low volume production. Infinity also sold over 25 thousand Q(X)30s in 2017, so it's not as low volume as talked about in previous comments, either.
rcxdude 9y ago
As an interesting tidbit on this point, the reason robotics is favored by car manufacturers in production plants is not because it's cheaper (it's actually more expensive), but because it's more flexible, i.e. changing a line to manufacture a new line is cheaper. This runs counter to most people's intuition of robotics.

Gibbon1 9y ago

BMW is in a pickle because there is a good chance their premium pricing advantage is going to up and disappear with the shift to electrics. BMW has a customer base that loves their esthetics and brando and ignores the very high cost of ownership. Shift to electric and the esthetic and brando go out the window. See Harley Davidson.

davewritescode 9y ago
Ugh, Harley Davidson is a company that sells awful, antiquated products at jacked up prices. Say what you want about how much BMW charges, they make very technologically advanced cars and charge accordingly. Their major fault is they tend to use very very expensive parts and overengineer everything to a fault. This tends to make them less reliable and very expensive to repair. Case in point, the very popular and well loved BMW N54 engine used 6 piezo fuel injectors to move massive amounts of fuel. Each injector costs almost $300 at an online parts store. For comparison, a Honda Civic injector generally costs 1/5th the price. https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-207715-13538648937-genuine-bmw-part/ https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-207715-13538648937-genuin...
- RoadKing 9y ago
  Only problem with BMW is any men I’ve ever seen riding one, looks like a fucking moron with tight pants and colorful sweater. Bunch of Fucking homos.
- RoadKing 9y ago
  Never seen a women take of her clothes to ride bitch on a BMW.
- Gibbon1 9y ago
  Both Harley's and BWM's have high cost of ownership and are on the lower end of the reliability curve. Yet owners buy them for the esthetics and Brando. Put an electric motor in each and the esthetics changes. That causes Brando issues because customers will grumble that the new models are 'not really' models.
9y ago