BMW's U.S. Assembly Plant Turns Out the Lights Earlier Than Expected

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

For a brief while, it looked like BMW’s Spartanburg, SC assembly plant would be the last such factory in the U.S. still in operation. Nope.

The German automaker announced Wednesday that pressures from the coronavirus pandemic have forced its hand, prompting a shutdown scheduled to begin Sunday.

After we told you that Bimmer was the last U.S. car producer not talking about curtailing production, the automaker stated that Spartanburg would go offline from April 3rd to 19th to adjust production volume to anticipated demand. Obviously, that demand took a scalp-level haircut following the arrival of COVID-10 on our shores.

As reported by FOX Carolina, Bimmer has since pushed up the shutdown date. The plant will now go dark for two weeks starting March 29th, coming back online, tentatively, on April 12th.

The automaker cited the earlier-than-expected breakdown in the U.S. supply chain as the reason for the bumped-up timeframe. Like at other automakers, the return-to-work date could be a moving target; BMW claims it will keep a close eye on the situation and adjust its schedule accordingly if things change.

Spartanburg, which built its first vehicle in 1994, cranks out roughly 1,500 vehicles per day, most of them destined for overseas markets. The brand’s South Carolina plant manufactures the X3, X5, and X7 crossovers, as well as their M-badged variants, along with the X4 and X6 “coupes.”

[Image: BMW]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Mar 25, 2020

    "BMW claims it will keep a close eye on the situation and adjust its schedule accordingly if things change" How about "BMW says..." There is no reason to doubt their statement, as thought they might *not* keep a close eye and adjust accordingly. Nits aside, I'm surprised they are still open, and will be for 4 more days.

  • DenverMike DenverMike on Mar 25, 2020

    I'll bet they're happy the 3-series is also built in Mexico, where apparently the pandemic has virtually skipped and business as usual.

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