BMW Plant Celebrates Grand Opening

BMW Manufacturing Co. celebrated the completion of the $750 million expansion to their Greer, S.C. campus designed to produce the X3 Sports Activity Vehicle. Announced in 2008, the automotive plant expansion included the construction of a 1.2 million s.f. assembly hall, a 300,000 s.f. addition to its paint shop and the creation of 1,600 new jobs. The Spartanburg expansion was larger than the company’s original South Carolina investment in 1992.

BMW officials who participated in the event touted the company’s overall investment of $1 billion from 2008 to 2010 in the American luxury car market as its path to prosperity, at least for the foreseeable future.

Josef Kerscher, president of Spartanburg-based BMW Manufacturing Co. said the Spartanburg plant officially started production of the X3 on Sept. 1 in its new Assembly North facility. The first models will go to Europe, and the U.S. models will be available during the first quarter of 2011.

About 900 employees eventually will be responsible for building the X3, the company said.

The plant currently is running one 10-hour shift and is building 150 X3s per day. A second shift will be added in November, which will bump up X3 production to 300 vehicles each day.

Two versions of the X3 will be available in the U.S. – a 240-horsepower xDrive 28i with a base MSRP of $37,625 and a turbocharged 300-horsepower xDrive35i with a base MSRP of $41,925.

Since the start of production at the Spartanburg automotive plant in September 1994, BMW has rolled out more than 1.6 million vehicles and invested a total of $4.6 billion.

A study by the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business said the company has created 23,000 jobs across the state. BMW said it has hired 1,000 people for the 1,600 new contingency jobs at the plant. When hiring is complete, more than 7,000 people will work at the facility.

Gray Construction provided construction management services for the 1.2 million s.f. Assembly North Facility. It was completed in just 10 months. If you have automotive construction needs, please contact Chris Allen, Executive Vice President, Automotive Market at callen@gray.com.