Out Of The Winter Recession

The British Motor Corporation announced yesterday that plans were coming to fruition for expanding output to a million vehicles a year.

A spokesman said that they were again producing at 750,000 vehicles a year, the full current capacity of the group's factories, and it was a sign of their confidence in the future that the £49m. expansion programme had been going forward steadily throughout the winter recession.

One of the biggest single contributions to the extra 250,000 vehicles a year would be made by the second car assembly building at the Austin factory at Birmingham, which would be completed in November. This building, costing £3,500,000, would be in production early next year, and would raise the capacity of the Austin factory from 8,000 vehicles to 10,500 a week.

It is planned to double the output of the "baby" cars shared' between the Austin works and the Morris assembly plant at Oxford from 200,000 a year to 400,000, which will be the biggest output ever achieved by a British car. The new assembly building is believed to be the most advanced in the world. Production will be almost fully automatic, and each new car, rolling off the assembly lines at the rate of one every two-and-a-half minutes, will be storm tested. The cars will be driven at varying speeds on rollers in a special tunnel in simulated storm conditions.