A look at a legacy: The Upstate’s evolving automotive cluster

Page 4 of 4 BMW leads the way At the forefront of South Carolina’s automotive cluster is BMW Manufacturing Co., which announced earlier this year that it would invest an additional $750 million in its Spartanburg County facility, adding 1.5 million square feet of space and 500 new jobs. The expansion will allow the facility to produce three additional models and increase production capacity to 240,000 units by 2012. “The boost in the production capacity at BMW Manufacturing will positively impact the logistics, supplier and distribution networks that support the manufacturing processes,” said Josef Kerscher, president of BMW Manufacturing. Specifically, the supplier network will grow and existing supplier companies will ramp up operations to provide parts for BMW’s higher production level. All of this is expected to double parts container traffic and significantly increase exports through the Port of Charleston, company officials said. BMW’s South Carolina facility was its first full manufacturing facility outside of Germany. Initial plans included a $600 million investment and the creation of 2,000 jobs by the year 2000. BMW quickly exceeded these goals. Production at the South Carolina facility began in 1994 and by 2000, BMW had already grown to more than 3,000 employees. By 2004, it had grown to more than 4,600 employees and today, BMW has more than 5,400 employees. Vehicle production has grown from 429 units in 1994 to 157,530 units in 2007. And the original investment of $600 million has ballooned into $4.2 billion. << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 Next > End >>