What's a euro worth these days, about a buck and a quarter? Go dig around in your couch cushions then and you'll probably find enough to have bought your very own assembly plant. That's right, according to Reuters, Mitsubishi just "sold" its Dutch assembly plant to bus-maker VDL Group for a nominal €1.
Before regaling this as the greatest automotive steal since the Phoenix Consortium bought Rover for £10 back in 2000, understand that there are strings attached. Mitsubishi has had the plant on the block with this negligible price tag for some time with the caveat that the buyer retain the Japanese automaker's 1,500 workers. VDL has promised to do so, possibly so it can use them to build cars for BMW under contract, according to the report, though in its announcement of the sale, Mitsubishi did not mention the German carmaker.
Mitsubishi had already scheduled the Born, Netherlands, factory for closure later this year. The plant, which builds Colt subcompacts and Outlander crossovers, has an annual capacity of some 200,000 vehicles, but is operating at only a quarter of that number. The move will cost Mitsubishi some $352 million, according to the report.
Before regaling this as the greatest automotive steal since the Phoenix Consortium bought Rover for £10 back in 2000, understand that there are strings attached. Mitsubishi has had the plant on the block with this negligible price tag for some time with the caveat that the buyer retain the Japanese automaker's 1,500 workers. VDL has promised to do so, possibly so it can use them to build cars for BMW under contract, according to the report, though in its announcement of the sale, Mitsubishi did not mention the German carmaker.
Mitsubishi had already scheduled the Born, Netherlands, factory for closure later this year. The plant, which builds Colt subcompacts and Outlander crossovers, has an annual capacity of some 200,000 vehicles, but is operating at only a quarter of that number. The move will cost Mitsubishi some $352 million, according to the report.
Sign in to post
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Continue