BMW FOLLOWING HONDA’S US MANUFACTURING LEAD
It sure seems that way, with this announcement coming about a month after Honda’s. This is extremely exciting news as it signals both the revival of American manufacturing and a strong economy. BMW will be investing $1,000,000,000 over the next 2 years in their factory in Spartanburg South Carolina. It will become their largest production site in the US and the world. That says a lot since they have 28 production facilities around the world and still produce more than half of its cars in Germany. Spartanburg is a real winner too, since 800 more jobs will be added. That is an increase of 10% and brings the total workforce there to 8,000. This expansion is also expected to create jobs for suppliers and local businesses. The plant’s capacity is expected to double by 2016, to 450,000 cars, and will also produce a new vehicle. It will be a “large crossover vehicle” called the X7. Like Honda, BMW is doing this because the US is one of its largest markets. In fact it is their 2nd largest market, totaling sales of 377,000 cars last year which represented 19% of all BMW sales. The largest market is China, and production numbers or market share numbers were not provided for this market but I would love to know what they are. There is a great quote here from Norbert Reithofer, the Chief Executive of BMW, “At the BMW Group, we have a golden rule: Production follows the market.” There is another benefit here as well, exporting. The cars that are made in S. Carolina are shipped abroad, 70% of them. If the economy continues the way it is going now expect more announcements like this from other automobile companies, and other businesses as well. I think manufacturing is one of the best indicators of a strong economy since it always includes job creation. Thank you BMW and let’s step up the creation of more hybrid and electric cars please. As always thank you for reading and have a great day.
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