BMW has officially put its money where its mouth is, finalizing a $1.7 billion investment in South Carolina that was first announced back in October 2022. That is a lot of zeroes for a state mostly known for barbecue and Myrtle Beach, but hey, when you are the largest automotive exporter by value in the entire country, you get to pick your spot.
The project, as first reported by Trending Politics, breaks down into two chunks: a cool $1 billion for upgrading and expanding Plant Spartanburg, and another $700 million for a brand new high-voltage battery assembly facility in nearby Woodruff. For those keeping score, Plant Spartanburg is already BMW's largest production site on the entire planet. Not in the U.S. Not in North America. The planet. South Carolina is apparently the center of the BMW universe, and nobody told us.
The big reveal came on June 28 when BMW pulled the sheet off the all-new iX5 during a "Home of X" event at Spartanburg. This is the first battery-electric X5 and the first fully electric BMW assembled in America. Series production is set to begin at the end of 2026, and the company plans to crank out at least five additional fully electric models in the U.S. by 2030. So if you thought electric BMWs were just a European thing, South Carolina would like a word.
Sebastian Mackensen, president and CEO of BMW of North America, was clearly feeling himself at the announcement. "One thing is to announce an investment and another one is to actually do the investment, implement it, [and] build the expansion of this facility," he said. Which is a polite German way of saying "we actually followed through, unlike some people."
Mackensen also noted that BMW is "here for the long game" in the U.S. and that "It makes a lot of sense to assemble your cars where your customers are." Hard to argue with that logic. The U.S. is BMW's second largest market by sales volume, and from 2014 through 2025, the company exported nearly 3 million vehicles from American soil worth over $113 billion. Fox Business first covered the expansion details.
The new Woodruff battery plant will feed high-voltage batteries directly into the Spartanburg operation, creating an integrated manufacturing network for next-generation X models. The plant currently assembles the X3, X6, X7, and XM for both domestic and international customers.
Mackensen said the investment "has really had a changing impact on the whole community, not only in Greenville [and] Spartanburg, but also for the entire state." When a German luxury automaker is your state's biggest export flex, you take the win and you do not ask questions.
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