by Francis B. Allgood
fallgood@scbiznews.com
Published Oct. 14, 2010

BMW Manufacturing Co. officially opened its new 1.2 million-square-foot assembly hall on Wednesday, allowing the German automaker the flexibility to add new models and adjust more readily to volume changes.

“Our past capacity was approximately 150,000 units, and now we are going up to 240,000 units per year,” said Josef Kerscher, president of BMW Manufacturing in Greer.

Altogether, BMW celebrated the opening of the new assembly hall, which will begin producing the X3 Sports Activity Vehicle, and a 300,000-square-foot expansion of its paint shop. The $750 million investment was announced in 2008.

The plant already produces the X5 and X6 models.

Thus far the expansion has generated 1,600 jobs with the expectation that 1,000 BMWs will roll from the assembly line every day, according to BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer.

“This is even more than our plant in Munich,” he added.

By year’s end, the plant will employ 7,600 workers.

“This year we aim to sell around 1.4 million cars worldwide and we are clearly on the right track,” Reithofer said.

As of September, BMW reported 157,464 BMW branded vehicles sold in the North America, up 9.2% compared to the same period in 2009.

Sales for just the month of September were 18,228, an increase of 21.1% compared to September 2009. Sales of the X5 and X6 increased 160.7% and 122.3%, respectively.

The new X3 will help BMW meet the new federal requirements on fuel mileage and greenhouse gas emissions for 2016, Reithofer said. The automaker’s first fully electric-powered vehicle, the Megacity, will begin production in 2013. The car will be manufacturered in Leipzig, Germany, but carbon fiber components will be manufactured in the United States.

“My goal one day is to go to the Middle East as a South Carolina senator and say we would love to help you with your problems, but we don’t need your oil,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham. “BMW and South Carolina are working together to change the way the cars are made for the world, making us a safer, cleaner planet.”

Graham was one of several political leaders at the celebration Wednesday, including Gov. Mark Sanford, former governors Richard Riley and Jim Hodges, and Iris Campbell, the wife of the late Carroll Campbell, who was governor when BMW announced its plans to build in South Carolina in 1992.

“There is more foreign direct per capita investment in South Carolina than any other state in the United States,” Sanford said, adding there have been six single 1,000-plus job announcements made in the Palmetto State over the past 12 months.

Since the plant opened in 1994, more than 1.6 million BMW vehicles have been manufactured in Greer. About 70% of all cars produced locally are exported to 130 global markets, said Rick Wade, senior advisor and deputy chief of staff for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

“I don’t need to tell you the huge multiplier affect on BMW’s extensive network of local suppliers,” he said, adding BMW supports 23,000 jobs and 1.2 billion in wages and salary each year.

According to Reithofer, BMW is the leading automaker exporting to non-NAFTA countries.

Wade praised BMW for its new paint shop. According to Kerscher, the new paint shop is 30% more energy efficient than the current paint shop, powered by methane gas from a nearby landfill.

“Overall, our new process, in general, will be 20% more efficient, which makes us more competitive for the world market,” he said.

BMW’s latest expansion brings its total investment in South Carolina to $4.6 billion. Graham said BMW has had a profound impact on recruiting other industry to South Carolina.

“I would argue there would be no Boeing without BMW,” he said of the plane maker’s announcement last year to build a new plant in North Charleston