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June 25, 2003
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This Week:

• Volkswagen Launches First-Ever SUV 

• Cornerstone laid for PSA Peugeot Citroën plant in Trnava, Slovakia

• Chrysler Group Is Most-Improved Automaker in The Harbour Report 2003

• BMW 3 Series Production Halted Due To Strike of German Metal Union

• Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover Appoint Imagination as Global Design Agency

• Renault opens the new premises of its satellite centre, Renault Design Paris

• Oasis Breaks National Hybrid Synergy Drive Campaign For Toyota

• New GM-Saab Technology Knows When Drivers Are Too Busy To Receive Certain Information

• New contracts for Volkswagen Group brands' dealer organisations

• PAX wheels now available for the Audi A6 as well

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BMW 3 Series Production Halted Due To Strike of German Metal Union
 

Munich -The union strike in the industrial region of Berlin / Brandenburg means that production will be interrupted in the BMW plants of Munich and Regensburg as of June 23, 2003. This will mainly affect the production of the BMW 3 Series. The Dingolfing plant will also be affected, but to a lesser extent as a nearby supplier of gearboxes is also being impacted by the strike. Component production at Landshut and engine production at Steyr will have to be partly interrupted as well. Ernst Baumann, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Personnel, states, "I deeply regret that the strike in Berlin / Brandenburg is now hitting the BMW Group. Here, labor dispute measures are affecting a company that has created and continues to create additional jobs. Last year, it was 3,280 in Germany alone. In Leipzig, we have taken in about 1,000 employees since last year. Until now, the plan has been to create around 5,500 jobs once the (new) plant is running fully. It was our objective to create as many jobs as possible through our engagement in the New Federal States. Under the present circumstances, we have to review this position."

Several thousand employees of the BMW Group in the body-in-white, paintshop and assembly areas in the Munich and Regensburg plants will not work as of Monday. Several hundred employees are also affected in each of the Dingolfing, Landshut and Steyr plants. BMW AG will apply for short-time work in the meantime. The length of the interruptions in production depends on the strike situation in Berlin / Brandenburg and therefore cannot be predicted as of yet.

Approximately 800 BMW 3 Series automobiles are produced every day in the Munich plant. Regensburg manufactures the BMW 3 Series Sports Wagon, Coupe and Convertible models at a rate of around 850 automobiles a day. In Dingolfing, production of about 150 BMW 3 Series vehicles per day will be affected.

Along with the plants in Bavaria, the BMW Group's involvement in Germany also covers the New Federal States (former East Germany). In Saxony, where several factories have also been hit by the recent strike, BMW is building its new Leipzig plant.

(June 19, 2003)