2,000,000 Minis and still going strong
David Cameron drives the two-millionth Mini off the Oxford production line.
THE two-millionth Mini has rolled off the production line… 10 years after the first car.
Of the two million, more than 1.5 million MINIs have been exported to customers in more than 90 countries around the world.
Mr Cameron said: “It’s a real privilege to drive this true British icon off the production line today. The two- millionth MINI to be made here in Oxford is a fantastic symbol of the UK’s strength in the global automotive industry and a great British manufacturing success story.”
The two millionth MINI is a MINI Convertible specially painted in White Silver metallic with a blue denim roof and is the prize on offer in a global Facebook campaign called ‘Two Million MINIs — Two Million Faces’. The winner will be chosen at random after the campaign closes on 30 September.
Producing 216,302 vehicles in 2010, MINI was the third-largest vehicle manufacturer in the UK, accounting for 17 per cent of national automotive production. The plant currently produces four MINI models — Hatchback, Convertible, Clubman and the new MINI Coupé. A fifth model, the Roadster, will join the line-up at the end of this year.
Marvellous MINI facts
•The top five export markets for MINI in 2010 were the US, Germany, France, China and Italy.
•2 million MINIs placed bumper to bumper would reach 4,626.7 miles or 7446 kilometres which is enough to stretch from Oxford to the Grand Canyon, and go round the entire circumference of the planet Pluto.
•Stacked on top of each other, 2 million MINIs would be 318 times the height of the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, and 3,398 times higher than the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
•Of the two million MINIs which have been built at Oxford you’ll struggle to find two the same. With 14 body colours, 4 hard top roof colours, 3 convertible roof options, bonnet stripes and several wheel and interior trims, MINI twins are statistically rare.
•A MINI is born every 68 seconds.
•Each and every MINI consists of around 2,100 components. A total of 500 different robots and 3,700 associates join forces to create each MINI, with 4,000 spot welds required to build each bodyshell. Every robot works to a tolerance of 0.05 millimetre — that’s half the width of a human hair.
•The most popular MINI colour is Pepper White, followed by Midnight Black then Chili Red.