BMW has announced that it will invest an additional $600 million and add 1000 associates to its South Carolina manufacturing facility over the next two years. The expanded facility will be the sole manufacturing plant for the “Sports Activity Vehicle”.

When the plant expansion is complete in the year 2000, BMW’s South Carolina investment will total more than $1.2 billion with employment of more than 3000 associates. The facility will expand to more than 2.1 million square feet from the current 1.2 million.

BMW claims the new plant configuration will result in a markedly higher production capacity and be one of the most flexible manufacturing bases in operation today.

A 60,000-square-foot engineering analysis center will also be built adjacent to the manufacturing complex, to give the Spartanburg engineering team the ability to expand testing and quality assurance systems. This new center will allow better integration of the engineering and manufacturing functions and includes testing laboratories for electrical analysis, endurance and reliability, noise reduction, and road simulation.

As in 1996 when the South Carolina facility became the exclusive manufacturing plant for the exciting new Z3 roadster, BMW will produce its entirely new concept, the recently announced Sports Activity Vehicle, in the United States for worldwide distribution.

“We don’t see much ’sport’ in the ’sport/utility vehicle’ segment of today,” commented Henrich Heitmann, CEO of BMW (US) Holding Corp. Our “‘Sports Activity Vehicle’ will combine the responsive performance of a BMW sports sedan with the roominess, flexibility, and all-weather capability of an SUV. And because this is not a truck-based concept, but rather based on its own unique platform, our vehicle will be unlike anything available today.”