- There are displays of vehicles. Vehicle doors will stay secured for everyone’s safety.
- The BMW Shop is now open.
- There is a 10 person maximum for groups (within the same household).
- Limitations on the number of guests and social distance are imposed.
- All guests and employees of BMW Zentrum are not required to wear masks. There are free face masks available.
- Full service is offered at the Isetta Cafe.
- Rentals of museums and public events are now accessible for groups of little more than 100 people.
In This Article...
Factory tours for BMW
Take a stroll along their production line to observe how the Ultimate Driving Machine is created. This tour starts with the vehicle’s painted body and ends with the finished product leaving the factory.
At the moment, BMW Manufacturing turns out more than 1,400 cars per day. The plant supplies more than 140 international markets with BMW X3, X4, X5, and X6 Sports Activity Vehicles and Coupes (and their derivatives).
Tours of the manufacturing facilities are available for a fee in addition to free museum admission.
Life in Upstate South Carolina and Spartanburg.
The distance between Greenville and Spartanburg, which is in Upstate South Carolina, is 30 miles. On the Interstate 85 corridor, both communities are situated about halfway between Atlanta and Charlotte.
More than 100 Fortune 500 firms call the area home, and Clemson University and the ITRC, a partner of BMW, have emerged as one of its hubs.
Upstate South Carolina experiences warm winters and protracted, sweltering summers. Both cities are an Eldorado for sports and nature enthusiasts because to breathtaking scenery and National Parks.
Bicycle friendly With a municipal population of 37,000 and an urban population of 181,000, Spartanburg features a lot of parks, safe paths, and beautiful places for picturesque walks along local waterways. The city provides a calendar of events all year long to keep visitors entertained. These include everything from street and music festivals to the yearly SouthEast LinuxFest for open source software.
With more than 300 events each year, including Fall for Greenville and Artisphere, vibrant Greenville, which has a municipal population of 71,000 and an urban population of 524,000, is a formidable competitor in the entertainment industry. Greenville, which has more than 1,000 restaurants, is gradually earning the title of “Foodie heaven.”
Both places provide the perfect balance for individuals seeking a combination of the vibrant city life and the vast outdoors, or just a wonderful environment in which to raise a family.
Both towns have top-notch educational institutions and top-notch healthcare systems since they are thriving metropolitan centers. The cost of living is around 10% lower in Upstate South Carolina than it is nationwide for people.
Built in 1993, BMW Manufacturing is the company’s first production site in the United States and its first full manufacturing facility outside of Germany. On the 1,150-acre campus, our manufacturing facility employs over 11,000 Team Members to build all variations of the X3, X3 M, X5, X5 M, and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles as well as the X4, X4 M, X6, and X6 M Sports Activity Coupes.
The success of Plant Spartanburg is largely due to our diversified workforce’s enthusiasm for technical innovation and fresh ideas. Our Associates cite the high quality of the products they create as their top professional drive. For them, creating the Ultimate Driving Machine is the pinnacle of employment.
The 1,150-acre, 5-million-square-foot campus produces its own power, has a Family Health Center on site, and has security and firefighting personnel available around-the-clock. The 2.4-mile Testing Facility track, the 60,000-square-foot Analysis Center, and the Zentrum, BMW’s sole museum in North America, are all located there.
Information technology is essential for improving the vehicle’s consumer relevance and the effectiveness of the related business procedures.
On exciting proof of concept and pilot projects where IT innovations advance automotive solutions, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers and students from BMW, the IT industry, and universities are working at the ITRC under an open innovation approach. Due to the close connection with Plant Spartanburg, a particular effort is made to identify synergies between IT infrastructure, IT applications, and manufacturing process-related innovation subjects.
The Southern Region Office is in charge of center development, sales, and marketing.
For a region that spans the US from South Carolina to Texas and encompasses 11 states as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the team manages over 100 dealerships in addition to satellite stores. Additionally, MINI sales, after-sales, market coordination, regional business management, and regional product trainers are handled by the Atlanta headquarters (BMW and MINI). The total sales success of BMW in the US is greatly influenced by the area manager at the Atlanta offices.
Honoring the creativity and industry of Americans!
Important: Before going on the factory tour, phone the company. Although we make every effort to keep our data current, you should always double-check.
The sole BMW facility in the United States is a marvel of how cutting-edge tech and beautiful design can coexist. During a narrated facility tour, see for yourself how the ultimate driving machine is created. The stunning Zentrum museum also offers a self-guided tour through time and everything BMW, where you can learn about the dynamic history of one of the best automakers in the world, BMW. It’s the ultimate backstage access for the fanatic.
Experience exhibitions that both astound and inspire you on a self-guided tour of the BMW globe. Take a stroll down memory lane to discover BMW’s many achievements in both racing and touring cars. View historical BMW vehicles that are valuable and uncommon. You may also discover what’s new at BMW by visiting exhibitions that showcase cutting-edge innovations in environmental engineering and transportation safety, like the Hydrogen Car.
Discover how we ensure that each seal, each coat of paint, and each detail are precisely done by taking a factory tour. Here, you can view the complete production process that all X5s and X6s must go through before they hit the open road, from the first weld to the last inspection.
To schedule a tour, dial 1-888-TOUR-BMW (868-7269). The cost of the tour is $7.00 for adults and $3.50 for students and CCA (Car Club of America) members (12 years of age and older). Reservations can be made by calling the hotel from 8:30 am to 8:00 pm EST, Monday through Friday. There must be reservations.
Children under the age of 12 are not permitted, and it’s best to wear comfortable shoes. No open-toed or heels are permitted.
What year did BMW Spartanburg debut?
Only two years later, in September 1994, hundreds of ecstatic coworkers celebrated as the first BMW manufactured in the United States rolled off the production line in Spartanburg County. After 25 years, BMW Plant Spartanburg now employs over 11,000 employees who produce 1,500 BMWs daily.
What models of BMW vehicles are made in Spartanburg, South Carolina?
On the seven million square foot facility, 11,000 people are employed by BMW Manufacturing. The BMW Group’s Spartanburg facility manufactures the X4, X4 M, X6, and X6 M Sports Activity Coupes as well as the BMW X3, X3 M, X5, X5 M, and X7 Sports Activity Vehicles. Our employees take great delight in producing high-end vehicles thanks to their more than 25 years of experience in the world of manufacturing. In addition to building safe cars, we are happy to provide customers the excitement of owning the Ultimate Driving Machine since we are customer-focused.
Is the BMW plant in Spartanburg unionized?
Since South Carolina is a “right-to-work” state, BMW’s facility is not unionized, unlike General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), and employee attempts to unionize in 2004 were unsuccessful.
BMW moved to Greenville, South Carolina, when?
With a proposal for an inland port that is now utilized by shippers ranging from Adidas to John Deere, the automaker approached the state and Norfolk Southern.
South Carolinians waited tensely, particularly those in the upstate area near Greenville. In 1992, the region was considered as a potential location for BMW’s new production facility. A tempting offer was crafted by legislators and deal makers that, if accepted, may have a long-term effect on the state’s economy.
In the early 20th century, the area was home to one of the nation’s greatest textile manufacturing sectors. This area was seeking success after this business was mostly outsourced. But even those who were eagerly awaiting BMW’s decision to settle in South Carolina had no idea how the German business would go on to shape the state’s economic future. BMW would establish Spartanburg, South Carolina, as a center of logistics with its entry.
When then-Gov. Carroll Campbell signed legislation in April 1992 offering BMW $35 million in incentives if it chose to operate in South Carolina, the state was just as optimistic. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the state reportedly guaranteed $5 million in further tax benefits.
According to Automotive News, the state received its resolution in June 1992 with a statement made at the Greenville Marriott Hotel during a lunch of bratwurst and Bavarian cabbage. South Carolina would soon welcome BMW.
The business chose South Carolina as its new home for a number of reasons at the time.
These explanations have held up better throughout time than others:
- Jim Tolson, a plant controller and administrator for the Greenville operations of German-based Robert Bosch Corp, told Automotive News in 1992 that there were European restaurants in the area. “This place has a distinct European feel about it. It seems sense that a corporation like BMW would be drawn to such setting.”
- Despite its significant state incentives, South Carolina had a reliable supply chain setup. According to a 1993 article in The New York Times, BMW was drawn to the area because of “the closeness of both the port of Charleston and major automotive suppliers.”
The choice was influenced by infrastructure, according to Steve Wilson, a BMW media communications specialist who the business has dubbed “the living archive of BMW Spartanburg.”
Wilson stated, “We had and still have a good interstate system. Because BMW had long-term intentions for its patent factory to export cars outside of the United States, “the deepwater port was a crucial factor.”
The Spartanburg site was close to an airport, and the state had a rail network. But at the time, these resources weren’t quite in the position where BMW needed them to be.
There were no international planes passing through the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport in the early 1990s. According to Automotive News, a condition of the deal that drew BMW to the state was that the airport extend its runway to let the automaker’s Transatlantic 747 freight planes to land—less than a 10-minute drive from the manufacturing site.
And as soon as BMW began operating in the area, the facility’s freight volume rapidly increased, rising by 344% YoY between 1992 and 1993. According to statistics from the airport, volume has been increasing.