Where is the largest BMW factory in the world? If you guessed Germany, you would be wrong. In fact, you would be wrong if you thought it is anywhere in Europe. No, the largest BMW production facility is located in the United States and it recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Spead over eight million square feet, the BMW plant in South Carolina's Spartanburg is absolutely massive. It is also popularly referred to as ‘Home of the X’ because it is tasked with the production of every SUV model that BMW currently offers - X3, X4, X5, X6, X7, and XM. The plant not only serves the US and North American markets but cars built here are exported to as many as 120 countries across the globe. In fact, of the 410,000 units manufactured here in 2023, around half or 225,000 units were shipped out. Considering that the company sold approximately 2.25 million units last year, these are some seriously impressive numbers from just one location.

So what does the BMW plant in Spartanburg boast of and why is it crucial to the company's global fortunes? HT Auto recently got exclusive access to the factory floors to find the answers to just that.

BMW cars have been sold in the United States since 1956. The first BMW dealership in the US opened in 1975. But it wasn't until the late 1980s that the need for a manufacturing facility here was felt. South Carolina may not have been the immediate choice but it was the most relevant one. Why? The port at Charleston is close by, the rail link to Spartanburg was already established and the proposed factory site was on Highway 101 and well connected to Interstate 81 for easy road access. There was also a viable pool of labour who would eventually call the factory their second home.

Did you know that the first-ever BMW assembled in the US was a 3-Series sedan. The plant would eventually also assemble iconic models like the Z3 and Z4 up until 2008. In 1999 though, the company decided to include X SUVs to the list of models made here and from 2008, the facility was exclusively assembling these cars.

Of humble beginnings and humongous expansions

Officials responsible for overseeing work at the BMW facility tell HT Auto that when the first batch of employees entered into employment contracts, almost no one had any previous experience of working in a car-making plant. Each employee had to be taken through various relevant processes of car assembly at the time.

Over the years, the size and scale of operations have increased manifold.

BMW has so far invested in excess of $13.3 billion into the Spartanburg facility which currently employees 11,000 persons onsite. There has also been six expansion exercises here with a seventh that is currently underway.

Times have changed, cars have changed and the training processes too have evolved.

BMW is currently expanding to accommodate assembly of its fully-electric models from here. While officials remain tight-lipped about which electric models will be assembled here, they remain confident that the plant can continue serving the local and global markets with these new-gen vehicles. And because new-gen vehicles may require new-gen technologies, BMW has already put in place processes like AI (Artificial Intelligence) training and training through VR (Virtual Reality) for employees. It is believed that these ensure quicker learning as well as cost savings on the factory floor.

So even as BMW pauses to celebrate all that it has achieved at its Spartanburg factory over the past 30 years, there is a clear focus on the future with people and technology as the two key pillars.

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