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BMW Confirms X7, Announces $1 Billion Investment in Spartanburg

Today, after keeping us in suspense for the last couple of days, BMW confirmed that they will built the X7 model, meant to become the biggest in the X Series range, overtaking the current leader, the X5.
BMW X4 1 photo
Photo: BMW
In a press conference attended by U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker; Governor of the state of South Carolina, Nikki Haley; Board of Management member for Production, Harald Krüger; head of BMW Plant Spartanburg, Manfred Erlacher and the BMW CEO himself, mr. Norbert Reithofer, the company also announced a future $1 Billion investment in the Spartanburg plant, where the new X7 and X4 will be built.

With this new expansion, the plant will become the company’s biggest worldwide, reaching a production capacity of 450,000 units per year, more than the 350,000 of the Dingolfing factory.

“To meet strong global demand for our BMW X models, we will invest a total of one billion U.S. dollars in our Spartanburg plant by 2016. This will increase annual production capacity by 50% up to 450,000 vehicles from 300,000 currently,” explained Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer, at a special ceremony in Spartanburg on Friday commemorating 20 years of production in the U.S.

With the two new models, the South Carolina facility will be responsible for making a total of 7 cars including the X3, X5, X5 M, X6 and X6 M. Today also marked the start of production for the brand new X4 SAC.

The X7 comes to further confirm the commitment BMW has in the US, as this will be its primary market in the future: “With the BMW X7, we are developing another, larger X model, which we will produce at our U.S. plant for our world markets – once again underscoring our commitment to the U.S.” said Mr. Reithofer.

With these new plans, the workforce will also grow to 8,800 employees, creating 800 new jobs. Alongside these people that are working directly at the BMW plant, another 30,000 jobs are provided in the area in adjacent sectors.

According to a study released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the annual export volume of BMW’s Spartanburg plant totals USD 7.5 billion – which makes the BMW Group’s American facility the largest vehicle exporter in the United States, based on total exports excluding NAFTA. Approximately 70% of Spartanburg’s production is exported to BMW markets around the world.
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