BMW to Produce the new BMW X4 in Spartanburg, SC Plant via $900 Million Investment

BMW is moving on to it's fifth expansion of the hugely successful U.S. plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This expansion will result in BMW handling increased worldwide demand for their X brand vehicles and will include the production of the newest BMW X4 being added to the product line up.

“We plan to invest over the next three years nearly USD 900 million in the Spartanburg plant by 2014. This will create 300 new jobs by the end of this year. This will allow us to produce 350,000 units in Spartanburg in the mid term, ” says Frank-Peter Arndt, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Production, in Spartanburg on Thursday.

Production in Spartanburg reached new high in 2011
Last year, the BMW plant in Spartanburg produced 276,065 vehicles for more than 130 markets around the world, representing an increase of 73% over the previous year. The BMW X3 also played a major role in this positive development. Global sales of this highly-successful model rose 156% in 2011 to reach a total of 117,944 vehicles.

More than 70% of the vehicles produced in Spartanburg (192,813) were exported, making the BMW Group the largest automotive exporter to the non-NAFTA countries.

Four expansions already at U.S. plant
Since it opened in 1994, the BMW plant in Spartanburg has already undergone four expansions and produced six different BMW models (318i, Z3, Z4, X5, X6, X3) and their variants. Employment has grown from 500 initially to more than 7,000 today.

Clean production
BMW’s Spartanburg plant is state-of-the-art in terms of environmental protection. Advanced production processes have made vehicle production even more environmentally-compatible: Over the past five years, it was possible to lower energy consumption by 48%, halve water consumption, reduce CO2 emissions by 44% and waste by 65% by car. In 2010, for example, the Spartanburg plant generated almost 62 million kilowatt hours of electricity from a methane gas energy centre located on the grounds of the facility and supplied by a local landfill. This accounts for over 37% of the entire plant’s total electrical demand.