Today’s American automotive landscape is very different from what it was decades ago. Now, the largest amount of American-made cars exported to the rest of the world actually come the BMW Spartanburg plant, not Detroit.

There’s no question that the BMW Spartanburg plant help turned Greer County, South Carolina around. It’s brought in thousands of jobs and indirectly helped create thousands more across the state of South Carolina, through increased supply chain jobs.

The Spartanburg plant celebrates this month 25 years since its first Greer-built BMW Model rolled off the production line. The first BMW produced in North America was a 318i.

Twenty-five years later, the BMW plant employs more than 11,000 people who build 1,500 BMWs daily.

Yesterday, at the BMW X3/X4 Assembly Hall, Knudt Flor, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing, welcomed South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt and other state and local dignitaries to celebrate the significant impact of the plant.

Over the last two and a half decades, the BMW Spartanburg plant built over 4.75 million vehicles

BMW’s US plant represents an investment of $10.6 billion that includes two massive body shops, two paint shops, two assembly halls and an elaborate logistics operation.

Facts about BMW Manufacturing

• The BMW Group has invested $10.6 Billion (through June 30), and the

Spartanburg plant has gone through six major expansions.

• There are more than 11,000 jobs onsite.

• More than 40 direct Tier 1 suppliers are located in South Carolina and more than 300 suppliers are in the United States.

• The physical size of BMW Plant in Greer is more than 7 million square feet with the recent addition of a new body shop, an expansion of the X5/X6 assembly hall, and an expansion of logistics.

• The most recent investment announcement was $600 million announced in 2017. This included the expansion of the X3/X4 assembly hall by 140,000 square feet and renovation/re-tooling of the first-generation X4 body shop.

• The plant produces 1,500 vehicles each day.

• Approximately 70% of the steel and aluminum used in manufacturing BMWs in the U.S. is produced in the U.S.

• About 70 percent of Greer’s production is exported to more than 125 world

• According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the BMW Group is the highest value vehicle exporter from the U.S. with a total export value of about $8.446 billion in 2018.

[Source: GreerToday]