Producing 100 cars is simply not possible in these factories, because it would mean massive losses to the factory owner.
Also, car manufacturers do not want one supplier for a part, they want several. Mostly as a backup and also to make sure they are not under any price fluctuations because they have more leverage over the parts supplier.
Making cars is a very, very thin margin bussiness, especially with cheaper cars like the toyota aygo, fiat panda etc. Minutes of downtime in a factory could mean having to sell a ton of cars at a loss to make up the cost.
I used to work on the assembly at a GM truck plant, and one of the amazing things was the range of different units that came down the line.
I find it hard to believe that the major car plants can no longer make assembly lines that produce more than one design on an assembly line.
Also by that logic there should be no Nissan Leaf.
Last but not least, if BMW waits too long they will lose customers not only to Tesla but also Porsche and Jaguar as well.
this is not the problem i described.
The problem is introducing a new model into an assembly line is a lot of work, and something which is not worth the effort if you are only going to produce a small amount of cars.
That's in line with what the parent comment said; it's not cheap at all do add a new vehicle to an existing assembly line, and it's not worth it for low volume production.
Infinity also sold over 25 thousand Q(X)30s in 2017, so it's not as low volume as talked about in previous comments, either.
See Harley Davidson.
Say what you want about how much BMW charges, they make very technologically advanced cars and charge accordingly.
Their major fault is they tend to use very very expensive parts and overengineer everything to a fault. This tends to make them less reliable and very expensive to repair.
Case in point, the very popular and well loved BMW N54 engine used 6 piezo fuel injectors to move massive amounts of fuel. Each injector costs almost $300 at an online parts store. For comparison, a Honda Civic injector generally costs 1/5th the price.
https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-207715-13538648937-genuin...
Put an electric motor in each and the esthetics changes. That causes Brando issues because customers will grumble that the new models are 'not really' models.
Also, it's one of, if not the most competitive market on the planet. There's a large number of incredibly well funded entrants, with competition in every segment. It's as close to a truly efficient market as you can get, and it's getting more efficient as Chinese and Indian brands mature.
They are basically loss-leaders for the brand.
Take VW for example, with their Modularer Querbaukasten (arguably the most well-known example, although others like Toyota have done this for longer). Cars from the Polo up to the Passat are based on the same platform, retooling is kept as low as possible.
All big players have gone modular. Everywhere, the number of different models based on the same platform has gone through the roof, with new (often relatively low-volume) variants arriving each year. (I swear, one of these days Mercedes is going to run out of letters! :) )
The biggest issue yet: Current toolkits aren't really geared towards EV - but: this is rapidly changing. As soon as the new generation of toolkits arrives, things could happen really fast.
It’s also not exactly true that the driving characteristics are the same across the board. Usually Seats are on the sporty side with stiff ride and precise handling, Skoda is softer, and VWs are in between. Same chassis, different setup. It’s not FWD vs RWD magnitude of difference, but it’s there. The same goes for Audi: Q7 is not the same as Urus.
But yeah, the unification is bad from the car enthusiasts POV. The Ateca not only has the same chassis, but the whole body (bar the front fascia) and even the colors palette is straight from Skoda.
Another worrying thing is that apparently someone in Wolfsburg noticed that Skoda sells better than VW, despite the cheap plastic interiors, and now the new VW cars (T-Roc, Tiguan) also don’t have the premium quality that had been reserved for the mother brand. Could be an aftermath of the dieselgate as well.