BMW's Leipzig Plant Back to Normal Two-Shift Production

Although the economic recession is still deepening for some automakers - have a look in the backyard of either General Motors or Chrysler - some others are already seeing the first signs of recovery. As a result, they have no other option but to come back to the pre-crisis settings, and re-employ new people or increase production for specific models.

Such an example is the German carmaker BMW who will return to a two-shift production at its Leipzig plant, according to a report by bmwblog.com. Starting in June, this production facility will work as normal, following a cut applied by BMW last year as a result of economic turmoil.

The parent company decided in November to reduce production by one shift at the Leipzig plant as sales and demand were down for almost every single model.

Well, things are a bit different these days, the German manufacturer was quoted as saying, as people are more interested in BMW's models and particularly in those produced by the Leipzig factory. Wondering which are the models to attract the most buyers? BMW says the 1 Series attracts buyers interest but, in order to bring the plant to the initial pre-crisis capacity, Leipzig will also build the upcoming X1 model.

Just for the record, BMW's Leipzig facility currently has around 2,700 employees, according to data provided by the aforementioned source, and currently produces the 1 Series hatchback we already told you about plus the 3 Series sedan. The plant had an annual production capacity of 150,000 cars in 2008 but, given the current economic conditions, these figures are likely to be reduced a bit for this year.