SC, a right to work State
Via Charlotte Observer
BMW is celebrating its 20th anniversary of building cars in the United States by investing $1 billion in its South Carolina plant to build two of its new X-series vehicles.
The German automaker announced Friday it will produce the X7, a large SUV with three rows of seats, similar to a Cadillac Escalade.
The company will also make the X4, a sportier version of the X3 coupe, and plans to build a plug-in hybrid version of its smaller X5 SUV.
The $1 billion will be spent through 2016 at the plant in Greer, just down Interstate 85 from Spartanburg. BMW said it will hire 800 additional workers, bringing total employment at the plant to 8,800 people.
The Greer plant will make 450,000 vehicles a year by 2016, becoming the largest of the company’s 28 plants around the world.
“We love Germany. But South Carolina is now the BMW capital of the world,” Gov. Nikki Haley said at a ceremony to celebrate the expansion and honor what the German automaker has meant to the state.
Almost 300,000 BMWs were made in South Carolina last year, and more than 2.6 million vehicles have rolled off the plant’s assembly lines in the past two decades.
http://weaselzippers.us/181052-bmw-plans-1-billion-expansion-at-factory-in-greer-sc/
