Together with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, BMW CEO Harald Krüger was also visited by US President Donald Trump a few days ago. Krüger was to make a representation for the German economy highlighting their strong presence in the US market.

Thanks to the BMW plant in Spartanburg, the automaker from Munich is one of the largest automobile exporters in the U.S. manufacturing most of the X models – X3, X4, X5 and X6.

Nevertheless, in the last few months, BMW has repeatedly been the target of President Trump for its plans to build a Mexico plant. The country at the south border has been discovered in recent years by an increasing number of motorists as a favorable location for the production of automobiles – and proximity to the large U.S. market was certainly not a disadvantage.

BMW has also begun to build a plant in Mexico and has repeatedly confirmed in recent weeks and months that the punitive charges imposed by President Trump can not alter this decision.

Presumably also to reinforce their commitment to the US economy, BMW CEO Harald Krüger also had some news related to the US plant in Spartanburg: Under the motto “Made by BMW in the USA”, the BMW Group wants to invest an additional $220 million in the next few years, solely for the training and further education of employees at Spartanburg.

Altogether, BMW employs some 9,000 people in its largest production plant, which build around 450,000 cars per year. The BMW X7 will soon add another model, which will be built exclusively in Spartanburg. With the exception of the small entry-level models X1 and X2, all X series hail from South Carolina.

In the new San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico, for example, the 3 series will be built, yet BMW will be able to adapt the production in the plant relatively easy to accommodate for demand and other factors. Other factors would, of course, be increased protectionism in the US, because exporting from Mexico to the US could become financially unattractive. For the plant in San Luis Potosi, however, that would be manageable, after all, vehicles built there can also be shipped to the rest of the world – as BMW already does today with all X models from Spartanburg.

[Source: Bimmertoday]