Nine hundred million dollar bills may not fit in the back of the BMW-built Mini Coopers featured in The Italian Job, but it’s certainly a boost to the Spartanburg, South Carolina, area—plus, it adds 300 jobs to the BMW manufacturing plant located there over the next three years.
With this added $900 million, the Spartanburg plant can build up to 350,000 BMW X3, X5 and X6 vehicles per year. BMW’s X-series SUVs have been on a kick lately, with growing global demand and a possible X4 genre-defying coupe-SUV to be added to the lineup. Sales of the X3 increased from 6,075 examples in 2010 to 27,793 last year—owing to a new redesign that got rid of its ungainliness, as well as an all-important increase in size.
BMW itself has been soaring high, after it took the envious position of America’s top-selling luxury brand. Indeed the X3 has been doing well globally, too. It saw a 156-percent increase in sales around the world. BMW says that 70 percent of its Spartanburg-built vehicles are exported. Imported From South Carolina is BMW’s new advertising slogan, if the Palmetto State’s Chamber of Commerce gets its say.
Source: Automotive News
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