BMW's X1 was set to hit U.S. showrooms in early 2011, but due to higher than anticipated European demand, BMW won't be able to supply the U.S. market. BMW’s initial plans of bringing the newest and smallest crossover in its lineup to the U.S. has been delayed – citing the lack of production capacity at the European plant responsible for producing the vehicle. The original timeline would have placed the sub-X3 crossover known as the X1 on dealer lots in early 2011, but according to a confirmation by BMW spokesman Tom Plucinsky via Car and Driver, the higher-than-expected demand for the X1 by the European market has pushed the plant to capacity before filling U.S. orders. The BMW X1 is currently being produced at a plant in Leipzig, Germany, but the plant’s max capacity as it currently stands will force the German automaker to limit its North American availability to the much smaller Canadian market for the time being. Plucinsky said that U.S. consumers will be forced to wait, “Until fall of 2011 at the absolute earliest,” meaning an early to mid-2012 introduction could be a very real possibility. The BMW spokesman did not clarify how the automaker intends to increase production capacity, and only provided a rough timeline of when the vehicle will reach the U.S. Source: leftlanews
Bloody hell... disappointing to say the least, but at least the X1's a sales hit in Europe. I can only imagine how well it will sell here once it finally gets here! But BMW needs to bring the X1 to the States before Audi gets their Q3 here, otherwise Audi will get a nice head-start, which will only be multiplied by the fact that the Q3 is being developed after the X1.
