- In 2023, the first year that Ocean was made in Graz, Austria, Magna Steyr, I made about 10,000 cars before the Fisker link broke and assembly had to stop. Parent company Magna International, which is based in Canada, said the shutdown could not be undone.
- Even though everyone at the plant is sad, Magna Steyr is still looking for a new business to compensate for the $400 million in lost Fisker program income that the supplier had hoped to earn in 2024.
- For many years, Steyr’s Graz factory made military motorbikes and tough 4x4s that were ready for battle. But it was in the 1990s that the company started making more consumer cars in large numbers, and by that time, four million cars had been made there.
You may not know much about Magna Steyr, but you do know about its most famous product: the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, a boxy car with military features that has been made in Graz since 1979.
Magna Steyr has also been in the news lately for the infamously failed Fisker Ocean, a battery-electric luxury crossover that made its appearance in Graz more than a year ago but is no longer being made because Fisker Inc. is having money problems.
Henrik Fisker, the founder of Denmark, has shown twice that people who make cars are bad at running businesses: His beautiful Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid suddenly stopped production in 2012 because he was about to go bankrupt. Hurricane Sandy destroyed a whole batch of 338 Karmas going to Europe. Fisker borrowed $139 million from the US government to build the Karma.
This time, Fisker leaves a huge hole in Magna Steyr’s construction work in Graz. The Jaguar E-Pace and I-Pace are housed in one hall, the G-Class in another, and the BMW Z4 and Toyota Supra in a third. This is Magna Steyr’s third ocean-going car after the Z4 and the Supra.
Before the Fisker link got weaker and assembly stopped, Magna Steyr made about 10,000 cars in 2023, which was the first year that Ocean was made. Magna International, Fisker’s parent business based in Canada, has said that the shutdown will last forever, even though Fisker is trying to sell its last few cars at high prices.
Because of the Fisker labor strike, the company fired 450 production workers, which made people in Graz sad. Still, work is going on while Magna Steyr looks for new contracts to make up for the $400 million in lost income from the Fisker program, which the supplier thought it would get in 2024.
“We are a leading automotive contract manufacturer and are actively in discussions with potential customers,” Roland Prettner, President of Magna Steyr, told Autoweek during a tour of the Graz plant for the media. Our capabilities are not limited. We’ll collaborate to satisfy clients.
Magna Steyr has three factories in Graz where it can make up to 150,000 cars. The 2027 release date for the Ineos Fusilier battery-electric car is another planned addition to the lineup.
Magna Steyr and the British company Ineos have already collaborated on the Quartermaster truck and the Grenadier 4×4 SUV. Even though Graz doesn’t make these kinds of cars, Magna Steyr helped Ineos start making them at an old Mercedes-Benz factory in France.
Prettner says that the Graz plant should be able to make at least 25,000 cars every year. Compared to a few years ago, this number is now seen as impossible to reach, especially for a plan that includes battery-electric cars, since demand for these vehicles is falling.
A joint venture plant between Magna Steyr and the BAIC Group started making the ArcFox line of four B- and C-segment battery-electric vehicles in China, where demand for EVs has been very high. Up to 180,000 cars can be made at the Zhenjiang plant every year.
While in Europe, Magna Steyr sees how eager Chinese automakers are to sell cars in the West. “We have seen very strong activity from all the Chinese OEMs for the last 12 months,” Prettner said. They are reaching out to us in order to determine the possibilities.
Prettner says that a lot of that will depend on how taxes are set up and what the rules are in Europe for selling cars here. We know that every Chinese original equipment maker is currently testing their estimates of how many vehicles might be sold with different distributors.
Magna Steyr is having a party in Austria to mark its 125th anniversary. The 1906 Voiturette, which had wooden wheels, was the first fully finished car to leave Graz’s factory.
The Steyr mill made military bikes and tough, combat-ready 4x4s for a long time, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the company started making more regular passenger cars. In 2001, the plant started making its first million cars. In 2006, they reached two million, and in 2012, they reached three million. Magna Steyr had made four million cars by September 2022. These cars were 34 different types from 11 different automakers.
Magna Steyr’s Graz plant has built the G-Wagen, the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander, the Chrysler Voyager and 300C, the Audi V8L, the Mercedes-Benz M-Class and E-Class, the Saab 9-3 Cabrio, the Mini Countryman and Paceman, the Aston Martin Rapide, and the BMW 5-Series and X3 over the past 40 years.
A big part of the production volume comes from how well it adapts, letting different types of cars with gasoline, diesel, and hybrid powertrains be made on the same assembly lines. Sometimes, cars from more than one brand may use the same assembly line. In 2017, Magna Steyr produced the first electric vehicle (Jaguar I-Pace) and a similar gas-powered vehicle (Jaguar E-Pace).
This flexibility helps Magna Steyr attract new customers to replace Fisker. For instance, Magna Steyr doesn’t do technical work; it only makes the BMW Z4. The Ineos Grenadier program, on the other hand, did that.
Magna Steyr’s business plan, which includes designing and making cars, reaches its peak with the ArcFox project in China. Before designing, testing, and making prototypes, Prettner says, “All we need is our customer’s vision, and we can do anything else.”
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