BMW in the United States

In 1992, BMW announced that it would build a 1,150-acre (470 ha) manufacturing facility in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States to strengthen its international production system. The plant opened in 1994.[7]

In 2010, BMW announced that it would spend $750 million to expand operations at the Greer plant. This expansion will allow production of 240,000 vehicles a year and will make the plant the largest car factory in the United States by number of employees.[13] BMW's largest single market is the United States, where 339 dealerships sold 346,023 cars in 2015.[14]

The two millionth vehicle built at BMWUSM rolled off the plant in January 2012. It is a vermilion red metallic X3 xDrive35i with Oyster Nevada interior and an M Sport Package, was driven by BMW Associate Terry Gardner, a 16-year BMW veteran, with accompanying associates Renita Williams, Trang Pham and Olga Yurchenko. These associates represent teams from each of the plant's manufacturing technologies: Body, Paint and Assembly. The vehicle was retained on display at the Spartanburg Plant to commemorate the milestone.[15]

The $2.2 billion plant, which employs 23,000 (BMW and contract), is part of the company's global five-plant production network.

In 2014, the automaker announced an additional $1 billion investment in the facility that will make Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW's largest U.S. factory, with an annual capacity of 480,000 units[16] when including the X7.[17] There were 411,171 vehicles produced in 2016, of which 70% were exported to 140 countries.[7] The plant is the largest BMW plant in the world in terms of vehicle production volume.[18]

Another record was set in 2018, around 70% of production was exported to 125 markets. The biggest export market was China, accounting for one-third of all export.[19] That same year, BMW ceased exporting the X3 to China.[19]

A nearby dry inland port, 200 mi (320 km) from the port of Charleston, handles many of the plant's needs for cargo and finished vehicles. In 2015, BMW Spartanburg sent 250,000 new cars by rail from to the Charleston port.[17] Some air freight is also used.[20]

• X3
• X4
• X5
• X6
• X7
• XM

• BMW 3 Series (E36) (1994–1996; also produced in Germany and South Africa)
  • 318i Sedan (1994–1995)
  • 318is Coupe (1994–1995)
  • 328i Sedan (1996)
• BMW Z3 (E36/4) (1995–2002)
  • Roadster
  • M Roadster
  • Coupe
  • M Coupe
• BMW Z4 (E85) (2003–2008; successive generation produced in Germany)
  • Roadster
  • M Roadster
  • Coupe
  • M Coupe

There are several models which have been solely sold in the United States:

• 1971-1977 BMW New Six Bavaria: This US-only model offered the more powerful engine in a car with fewer luxury features.[21][22]
• 2005-2016 BMW M5 manual transmission options: The United States and Canada were the only markets where the E60 and F10 M5 was available with a manual transmission.[23][24]

Several BMW engines have not been officially sold in the United States, due to emissions regulations. These include:

• M20: Early versions of the M20 engine, which used Jetronic fuel-injection, were not sold in the US.
• M52: Due to high-sulfur fuel in the US at the time, most M52 engines sold in the US used an iron block, instead of the aluminium block used in other markets.[25]
• N53: Due to high-sulfur fuel, the US was one of several countries where the N53 was not sold. Instead, its N52 predecessor remained in use in these countries.[26][27]
• S50/S52: For the E36 M3, the United States models used different engines to the models used in most other markets. The S50B30US and S52 engines used in the US are less powerful than the equivalent Euro-specification S50 engines.[28][29]