It’s been more than 20 years since BMW opened its first assembly plant in North America, located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Now, the automaker has celebrated its three millionth vehicle to roll of the line at the facility.
The milestone vehicle, a Donington Grey Metallic X5 M with Mugello Red Full Merino leather seats and Carbon Fiber interior trim, was driven off the line by Dawn Burgess, an employee hired in 1994. Burgess presented the keys to the car to Manfred Erlacher, President and CEO of BMW Manufacturing. The three millionth BMW will be shipped to a customer in Kristianstad, Sweden.
“The growth of this plant has been quite extraordinary. Today, as we witness another historic moment, I am delighted to announce that BMW’s profound impact in South Carolina continues,” said Erlacher.
In addition to the three millionth vehicle, BMW presented three other milestone cars for the Spartanburg plant: the first vehicle produced, an Alpine White 318i (September 1994), the one millionth vehicle, an Interlagos Blue Z4 M (February 2006) and the two millionth vehicle, a Vermillion Red X3 (January 2012).
BMW is the largest U.S. automotive exporter of passenger vehicles by value. With an annual value totaling $9.2 billion, BMW’s single plant in South Carolina exceeded exports from Michigan, Alabama and California. Last year, BMW exported nearly 250,000 vehicles from its South Carolina plant, over 70 percent of the plant’s total volume.
The Spartanburg plant currently produces more than 1,200 vehicles a day and is the exclusive producer of all BMW X3, X4, X5 and X6 vehicles, which are exported to more than 140 global markets.
With the addition of the X7 and other models, BMW will increase the plant’s capacity to 450,000 vehicles, making it the largest BMW plant in the world.
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