We
reported earlier about the rumor that BMW was
considering to build a fourth model at the US plant in Spartanburg, SC. Ian Robertson, member of the BMW board of management responsible for sales and marketing, now confirmed with
FAZ that they were actually looking into this. While there's no final decision, Robertson said they "would by no means put that off the table." The US market continues to be the most important market for premium vehicles, so an US production would make sense for either the
F10 5-series or the new
F30 3-series coming later this year.
BMW currently produces the X3, the X5 and the X6 at the Spartanburg Plant. As Robertson puts it, "the Spartanburg plant still has enough capacity to allow the production of additional models."
According to
FAZ, BMW sold 266,000 cars in the US in 2010 which is makes for a market share of 2.3 percent. It's no surprise that Robertson refers to the US as BMW's "second homeland."
BMW recently invested as much as 1 billion Dollar to expand the US plant for the production of the X3. The increased capacity of 240,000 models per year made for 1,600 new jobs. Robertson went on to say that the additional capacity was needed because the USA were the most important market outside of Germany.
[source:
FAZ.net]