Mitsubishi announced yesterday that it will sell its Dutch assembly plant to local bus maker VDL Groep for 1 Euro ($1.23). Mitsubishi's plant in the Netherlands is their only factory in Europe. Don't go running for an Euro just yet. This transaction has a lot of strings attached. Apparently, VDL Groep is bound by contract to keep all 1,500 employees who are currently working there. VDL's plan for its new acquisition is to build small cars for BMW. So far there is no information about which models exactly they are talking about. Mitsubishi did not make any statements regarding VDL's plans to work for BMW. Currently, the plant in question is building the Colt and the Outlander, however, the Japanese carmaker announced at the beginning of this year that it will cease production here by 2013.
The Dutch plant is not a major manufacturing facility for Mitsubishi. It accounts for less than 5% of their global production, which is considered to be around 1.1 million units per year.
[Source: Reuters]
