BMW Manufacturing announces production of the New BMW X3

Spartanburg, S.C. – September 1, 2010… BMW Manufacturing announced today that production of the new BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle got underway at the South Carolina plant.

In early 2008, BMW Group announced that it would invest $750 million in the South Carolina plant, its largest investment in South Carolina to date. This commitment paved the way for construction of a new Assembly Hall built exclusively to produce the BMW X3 along with a significant expansion to the existing Paint Shop. This 1.5 million square foot addition increases the plant's total footprint to over 4.0 million square feet.   

“The launch of the new X3 will mark a historic moment for this plant.  I am confident that the BMW X3 is once again going to make our plant a leader in the Sports Activity segment,” stated Josef Kerscher, President, BMW Manufacturing Co. in Spartanburg.

Within the last 7 years, the first-generation BMW X3 has been an extraordinary success story for the BMW Group. The BMW X3 began production in 2004. After production of over 600,000 units, the last vehicle of the first model generation, a Vermilion red metallic BMW X3 xDrive35d, came off the line in Austria yesterday.     

With the model change, production of the X3 was relocated to the South Carolina plant based on existing manufacturing proficiency of the BMW X5 and X6 models. The US plant has become the expertise center for the BMW X Models. The addition of the third model to the plant's vehicle mix has created several hundred new jobs and increased BMW's total investment in South Carolina to $4.6 billion since 1992.    

BMW Manufacturing Co.

BMW Manufacturing Co. is a subsidiary of BMW AG in Munich, Germany and is the global producer of the BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle and X6 Sports Activity Coupe. Later this year, it will begin production of the new BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle. In addition to the South Carolina manufacturing facility, BMW North American subsidiaries include sales, marketing and financial services operations in the United States, Canada and throughout Latin America; and a design firm and technology office in California. For more information on BMW Manufacturing, visit www.bmwusfactory.com.

The BMW Group

With its three brands – BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce – the BMW Group is one of the world’s most successful premium manufacturers of cars and motorcycles. It operates internationally with 24 production sites in 13 countries and a global sales network with representation in more than 140 countries.

During the financial year 2009, the BMW Group sold approximately 1.29 million cars and more than 87,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for 2009 was euro 413 million, revenues totaled euro 50.68 billion.  At 31.December 2009, the BMW Group had a workforce of approximately 96,000 employees.

Long-term thinking and responsible action have long been the foundation of the BMW Group’s success. Striving for ecological and social sustainability along the entire value-added chain, taking full responsibility for our products and giving an unequivocal commitment to preserving resources are prime objectives firmly embedded in our corporate strategies. For these reasons, the BMW Group has been sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the last five years.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:

www.bmwgroupna.com

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Journalist note: Information about the BMW Group and its products is available to journalists on-line at the BMW Group PressClub at the following address: www.press.bmwna.com.  Additional information, images and video may be found at www.bmwgroupusanews.com.  Broadcast quality video footage is available via The NewsMarket at www.thenewsmarket.com.

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