As you might’ve heard, BMW set yet another sales record last year. The Bavarian brand sold more cars than ever before in 2019 and a lot of the credit goes to their expending range of SUVs and crossovers. They were, by far, the most popular choices for customers worldwide. Since BMW builds most of its X cars at the Spartanburg plant, the US facility also posted record-breaking results last year.
The Spartanburg plant is one of the biggest BMW has around the world. Starting off with a production capacity of 300,000 units, the plant underwent an expansion process taking its capacity up to 450,000. For a short time it was BMW’s biggest plant in the world. However, the Chinese manufacturing plants expanded not long after the Spartanburg expansion itself was finished, stealing some of its thunder. Nevertheless, the results achieved by the US plant in 2019 are impressive, with a total of 411,620 units built, thanks to the soaring crossover and SUV demand worldwide.
This makes 2019 a record-breaking year, with the factory making 15% more cars than in 2018 and 449 units more than in 2016, when the previous record was set. The most popular car build in Spartanburg in 2019 was the BMW X5 with 161,096 units made followed by the X3 with 115,088 units. The X7 also had a great year, with 52,619 units being made in the US plant last year, despite arriving rather late to the party.
“The past three years have been among the most challenging in the history of Plant Spartanburg,” Knudt Flor, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing said in a statement. “Our plant’s model portfolio is fresh and popular around the world.” The numbers could’ve been even better for the US plant if it were not for the trade war blows between the US and China. To avoid taxes BMW started building and exporting some X3 models for the Chinese market (the largest in the world) at other plants to keep the prices in check. To keep everyone happy, plants in South Africa and Shenyang took over some of the production.
