The Dutch subsidiary of automotive supplier International Automotive Components (IAC) is the first victim of BMW withdrawing production of the MINI at VDL Nedcar in Born. According to Dutch media, the factory will close in February 2024, with 100 people losing their jobs.

IAC Group, with headquarters in Luxembourg, is a global supplier of innovative and sustainable instrument panels, consoles, door panels, overhead systems, bumper fascias, and exterior ornamentation for OEMs. Worldwide, they employ over 19 000 people in 18 countries.

In Born, they manufacture interior parts for, among others, the MINI Countryman en Cabrio. Production of the latter for BMW is reduced at VDL Nedcar end of this year, ending in March 2024. Even if VDL finds new contracts, it will be too late to save the IAC subsidiary as it takes two years to set up production of a new car, according to IAC plant manager Lydia Schreurs.

More than a million cars produced

The Dutch family-owned VDL Group has been looking for new contracts for its car assembly plant in Born for some years since the news that BMW would finish production of the MINI in the Nederlands and transfer it to its own factories. But talks with several (American) start-ups like Canoo and Rivian didn’t lead to new contracts yet.

In August last year, it got a message from BMW that Born could extend the build of MINIs for four months longer, until March 1st, 2024. Since 2014 it has been building MINIs for BMW, starting with the three-door Hatch.

In 2015, the MINI convertible was added, followed by the MINI Countryman (including the PHEV), and since 2017, the BMW X1. On June 15th, 2022, the millionth vehicle produced by BMW Group rolled off the assembly line in Born.

The unions – both in the Netherlands and in Belgium- fear the worse for the current 3 800 employees at VDL Nedcar, among which some 600 Belgians live just over the border. Most came from the Ford factory in Genk, where nearly 6 000 people lost their job when the plant was closed in 2012.

Work for 350 people?

Even with the latest contracts for Electricbrands, the assembly of battery packs and hard coating of brake disks, and other subcontracts for VDL’s other (bus) factories, the unions estimated there will be work for 350 people at most in the worst-case scenario.

In February 2023, VDL Nedcar announced it would build the modular electric XBUS and the Evetta microcar for German start-up ElectricBrands. The first of the ElectricBrands cars to be built in Born is said to be the Evetta, as the first deliveries were planned for the beginning of 2024, with the XBUS following a year later. The Evetta is a third attempt to relaunch the iconic BMW Isetta as an electric microcar.

The XBUS has a modular structure and is available in nine different configurations on two chassis versions (standard and ‘off the road’), painted in frivolous colors. In July last year, the company presented a ‘Camper’ version, which features a small pop-up roof to increase the headroom in the interior.