BMW Group announced on June 23, 1992, that it would build its first full manufacturing facility outside of Germany in South Carolina. At that time, the company pledged to invest $600 million, to employ 2,000 associates by the year 2000, and attract at least nine suppliers to the state. It was the fastest factory startup in automotive history—a record 23 months from site groundbreaking to first car produced.

Now over two decades later, the BMW Group has invested over 10.6 Billion, and the plant has gone through five major expansions. There are more than 11,000 jobs onsite with over 40 direct Tier 1 suppliers located in South Carolina and 300 suppliers in the United States.

In 2017, BMW Group announced an additional investment of $600 million in manufacturing infrastructure for the plant to prepare for future generations of the BMW X model family. This is the sixth major expansion since the plant opened.

Since the start of production in 1994 the plant has produced over 5 million vehicles. Currently, BMW Manufacturing produces more than 1,500 vehicles each day and exports 70 percent of its production. The factory is the global producer of the BMW X3, X3 M, X5, X5 M and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles and X4, X4 M, X6 and X6 M Sports Activity Coupes.

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Video Timeline
0:00 – X4 (G02, 2018present)
6:35 – X5 (G05, 2018present)
12:14 – X7 (G07, 2018present)
23:33 – X3 (F25 facelift, 20142018)/X4 (F26, 20142018)
49:10 – X5 (F15, 20132018)/X6 (F15, 20142019)
51:10 – X3 (F25, 20112014)
1:04:19 – Vehicle Shipping (2014)
1:05:38 – Ground Breaking and Construction (19921994)
1:05:57 – Oktoberfest 2000
1:08:56 – Aerial View, Present