Oxford will always be the home of the Mini, bosses have confirmed.

Parent company BMW has admitted a four-wheel drive version of the car will be built in another plant, but stressed this did not mean all production would switch from the Cowley works to another country.

Spokesman Martin Harrison said: "The Oxford plant will remain the home of Mini and the centre of our operations."

There has been widespread speculation that the new car, known as the Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV), will be built at BMW's plants in Graz, Austria, or Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the United States.

Mr Harrison said no decision had been made on where the car would be made or when it would be launched.

But he admitted that the Cowley plant's capacity of 260,000 cars a year would be reached in the short-term following the launch of the new Clubman model.

Mr Harrison added: "When we build the SAV is entirely dependent on where production will be."

As a result, the SAV is still on the drawing board but Mr Harrison confirmed it would definitely go into production.