The BMW plant in Spartanburg is expanding yet again. The company announced plans Friday to add 800 jobs to the facility over the next two years. That will bring BMW’s total workforce there to 8,800.
Twenty years ago BMW opened the plant in Spartanburg with 500 workers. The company said its location between the Port of Charleston and I-85 made it ideal, plus South Carolina offers good technical training.
This latest $1 billion expansion is partly to manufacture what will be BMW’s largest sports utility vehicle. The company expects the plant to churn out 450,000 vehicles each year by the end of 2016. That would make Spartanburg BMW’s most productive plant.
The South Carolina Department of Commerce says no state incentives have been approved yet, but negotiations are still going on. A 2012 expansion was a similar size and came with a $17.5 million grant and job development credits.
