In spite of the fact that BMW's eliminating jobs around the world, the German automaker is expanding their Spartanburg, South Carolina plant. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports the transplant aims to churn-out 240k vehicles per year by 2012. That's well up from the approximate 160k Bimmer's NA plant currently produces. At the moment, Bimmer builds the Z4 roadster and X5 sports utility activity vehicle in the Palmetto State. Later this year, they'll add the X6 sports whatever-it-is. In 2009, Spartenburg will produce a diesel version of the X5 and a hybrid version X6 for the U.S. market. The following year, BMW plans to emigrate Z4 production to Germany and immigrate the next-gen X3 from Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. What if the weak dollar strengthens? As they say in S.C., dum spiro spero.
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Hmm…I thought they had already stopped production of the Z4 in the US and transferred it to Germany…
Also, it seems strange that they launch the new Z4 in 2009, build a couple Z4s in Spartanburg and then transfer the production to Germany in 2010.
I know they have flexible production lines but this seems like pushing it.
From a logical point of view, it at least seems to make sense to build all the X models in one place and the Z4 in Europe though.
Unfortunately, the new Z4 will have a stupid metal folding roof which not only always looks terrible but also adds a lot of weight to the car.