BMW Manufacturing reaches milestone at Plant Spartanburg

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A java green metallic BMW X6 M rolled off the assembly line today, 30 years after the company broke ground on the BMW Manufacturing plant in Spartanburg County.

The vehicle has a 600-horsepower 4.4 liter BMW M TwinPower V-8 engine, Silverstone full Merino leather interior and 21/22-inch M Star-spoke bi-color wheels.

Those wheels will never hit the street, though.

It is the 6 millionth automobile made at Plant Spartanburg and will stay there as part of its BMW historic collection.

“Since June 2020, the team at Plant Spartanburg has produced 1 million vehicles,” BMW Manufacturing President and CEO Robert Engelhorn said in a news release. “I’m incredibly proud of our associates and the resilience they have shown during this volatile time. We have world-class people who build world-class vehicles.”

The plant had a record six-month period in the second half of 2020, a record year in 2021 with 433,810 cars produced, and a productive first half of 2022, the news release said.

The time between million-mark milestones is shrinking. The factory hit 1 million in February 2006, reached 2 million in 2021, 3 million in 2015, 4 million in 2017 and 5 million on June 4, 2020.

Thirty years ago today, the late S.C. Gov. Carroll Campbell and BMW Chairman Eberhard von Kuenheim broke ground on the company’s first full manufacturing plant outside of Germany.

“When we broke ground 30 years ago, little did we know that BMW’s legacy in South Carolina would be so profound,” Engelhorn said in the release. “We continue to add to that legacy today with our 6 millionth BMW. We also look to our bright future as we start production of our newest BMW model, the BMW XM, at the end of the year.”

About 11,000 people work at the Greer plant today.